Risk management used to be largely confined to finance and investment decisions, but now it extends into how corporations organise office locations.
During the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, the main - and in some cases, only - offices of several law, accounting and financial firms in New York were destroyed.
Since then, risk management has begun to cover more lethal forms of crisis. The rationale for centralised offices is primarily to save costs, and to have key employees under one roof. Though the risk of terrorism in Hong Kong is low, experts warn there is no room for complacency.
'Quite a few of the big banks, law firms and accountancies operating locally undertook additional BCP [business continuity planning] measures to ensure that not all their information and human assets were in the same place at the same time,' says a former United States intelligence operative, who now works as a security consultant with an international banking group.
For example, in the US, after September 11, corporate giants, such as Morgan Stanley and BlueCross BlueShield, opened decentralised office locations. Others have started to allow employees to work from home.
Locally, a number of international companies have used multiple locations to divide their administrative offices from sales or trading, though emergency planning may not have been their objective. Growing companies often just need the extra space.
It is a prudent approach, especially for risk management. 'Many businesses operate on the basis of having multiple locations; sometimes even in the same city, or even the same district,' says the specialist, who asked not to be named.
