We’re in an era that’s plagued by an increasing threat of climate catastrophes and rapidly evolving cybersecurity threats. Risks like these (and many others) could mean costly disruptions to businesses of all shapes and sizes.

It might seem that risk management and business continuity planning for these innumerable risks are must-do items for organizations. But they aren’t, according to Jennifer Elder, an expert on the topic.

“A lot of organizations don’t do business continuity planning until they’ve experienced a disaster, and they go, ‘Yeah, we should have thought about this before,’” Elder, who is CEO of The Sustainable CFO and co-author of the book Faster Disaster Recovery: The Business Owner’s Guide to Developing a Business Continuity Plan, told CFO Brew.

It’s also far from guaranteed that a business continuity strategy benefits from regular testing or review. According to Gartner research, fewer than one-third of manufacturers said their recovery strategies were “tested and/or walked through as part of an annual business continuity management (BCM) testing exercise.”

Thankfully, business continuity experts are here to help navigate the vast threat landscape.

Understanding the threats. It doesn’t take a hurricane to disrupt business as usual. In a recent report, Gartner identified common business-continuity risks business face including: IT disruptions, such as a ransomware attack or unscheduled outage; loss of a supplier or business partner, such as a logistics provider; loss of workforce because of major accidents or workplace violence; loss of utilities in the wake of natural disasters; and infrastructure failures.

For more on managing a business interruption, click here.—AZ

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Some things stay true: An air-conditioned movie theater will always be an appealing location on a sweltering summer day; a mug of hot chocolate will always sound comforting on a snowy night; and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, will typically post solid earnings.

Shocker: That’s what happened with the tech giant’s Q2 results—even if its AI bets slightly complicated the picture.

Alphabet reported $84.7 billion in sales for the quarter, a 14% YoY jump and beating the $84.1 billion analysts expected, per FactSet data. Net income, meanwhile, jumped to $23.6 billion, which also topped analyst expectations.

Advertising revenue came in at $64.6 billion, up from $58.1 billion the year before. But TikTok, it’s not: YouTube ad revenue fell short of analyst predictions—though just barely, totaling $8.7 billion instead of the expected $8.9 billion.

But even if Alphabet’s continued success feels predictable at this point, this particular earnings report also stressed the value of novelty. The tech company’s “Other Bets” unit, essentially its more out-there, innovative investments, raked in $365 million, up 28% from $285 million last year. And during the company’s earnings call, CFO Ruth Porat said Alphabet will invest another $5 billion in its self-driving car unit, Waymo.

Click here to find out how risky Alphabet’s AI gamble is.—NP

Insurance giant Travelers didn’t allow a few (actually, a lot of) thunderstorms to rain on its parade last quarter.

In Q2, Travelers reported a profit of $534 million, compared to a loss of $14 million in Q2 2023. Its combined ratio—a measure of underwriting profitability—was a nearly break-even 100.2%, a 6.3 percentage point improvement from last year. Net written premiums increased 8% YoY to $11.1 billion. In Q1, Travelers’ written premiums increased 8% YoY to $10.2 billion, as CFO Brew previously reported.

Business insurance customers renewing their policies in Q2 saw their premiums increase 10.1%, but “retention remained high at 85%,” CEO Alan Schnitzer said during an earnings call on Friday.

“A combination of strong pricing and retention reflects deliberate execution on our part and a marketplace that continues to be generally disciplined,” Schnitzer said.

These results were in spite of what he called a “record number of severe convective storms across the [US].” CFO Dan Frey noted on the earnings call that the quarter produced $1.5 billion in pre-tax catastrophe (CAT) losses.

Click here to continue reading.—AZ

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