According to a new report published by leading professional services provider Ernst & Young, the strategic risk that the global businesses in 2008 might face, will continue to be regulatory and compliance risk. The report, "Strategic Business Risk: 2008 - The Top Ten Risks for Global Business", recognizes the top ten risks across 12 leading business sectors of the world. The report further identifies the five fastest growing threats that may have an important impact in the coming three to five years.

According to the Global Vice-Chair for Ernst & Young's Assurance and Advisory Business Services, "Not all strategic business risks are the same - they may be macro, sector or operational - nor do they have the same impact in every business sector."

Jim Holstein, Head of Risk Advisory Services for Ernst & Young declares that as companies are becoming increasingly global, compliance turns to be an even greater challenge, which forces them to control different regulations in diverse markets.

The report, produced by Ernst & Young in association with Oxford Analytica, wanted the views of more than 20 disciplines and 70 analysts. The report identified some top strategic business risks: regulatory and compliance risk, global financial shocks, emerging markets, industry transition, energy shock, inflation in cost, shifts in consumer demands, etc.

The nature of risk varied noticeably among all sectors, emphasizing the importance of sector understanding in driving strategic business risk analysis. Holstein discovers some major steps that managers must take in order to lesson down the threat imposed by these risks. Murphy concludes, "Risks, and the business perception of them, will change over time. If we had done this exercise ten years ago, it is unlikely that climate change would have placed so highly."