When Vendor Risk Becomes a Board Issue
Most organisations assess vendor risk at onboarding. After that, visibility fades. Financial deterioration is usually discovered only after payment delays, disputes, or service failure.
By the time risk surfaces operationally, exposure already exists. Procurement, finance, and operations react late. Boards ask why early warning signals were missed.
What boards are quietly questioning:
Which vendors materially affect continuity?
How often is financial risk re-evaluated?
Who owns the decision to intervene—or not?
In many organisations, ownership is unclear. The process exists, but the mandate does not.
Decision readiness:
Continuous visibility does not mean more data. It means knowing when information is sufficient to act—or consciously accept risk. The absence of a decision framework is itself a decision.
If vendor risk visibility is becoming a constraint, we can review how you currently assess counterparties in a short discovery call.