Skip to main content
Marsh logo

Case study

Strengthening operational resilience in a global financial services institution in times of crisis

07/25/2022

The Challenge

A diversified global financial markets infrastructure and data business with worldwide presence faced increasing challenges from wide-ranging risks. The organisation needed a qualified and trusted adviser with depth of strategic risk experience to strengthen operational resilience and help manage their most pressing concerns.

The immediate challenge in 2020 was the need for a prompt and effective coordination of crisis response to the COVID-19 pandemic. New risks that emerged with the Ukraine conflict required them to codify and apply their crisis response plan for emerging risks.

The Solution

Marsh Advisory Consulting Solutions drew on our crisis management specialists, working closely with our brokerage team. We developed an ‘end-to-end’ process that generated threat specific crisis strategies, plans and exercises customized to support the needs of the business. Our process takes a lifecycle approach to crisis management.

Our journey comprised the entire crisis lifecycle:

Planning

  • Crisis governance design and implementation
  • Crisis management plans and processes
  • Response scenarios and playbooks

Training

  • Crisis management best practice
  • Crisis team design and building
  • Executive coaching and crisis toolkits for business managers

Exercising

  • Scenario-based testing
  • Bespoke crisis simulations
  • Custom crisis workshops combining ‘teach’ and ‘test’

Training

  • Immediate expert advice to guide, enable and coordinate crisis response
  • Provision of specific expertise (e.g. Crisis communications) to enhance the response

We deployed Project Management Office (PMO) expertise to coordinate the crisis response and harnessed advanced analytics to evaluate different conflict scenarios and facilitated executive-level crises exercises. 

The Results

Our 'full-spectrum' risk approach aligned the appropriate talent and capabilities within Marsh were involved at all times to support the dynamic risk needs of the business.

Ongoing access to an experienced crisis management consulting team and the introduction of an intelligent scenario planning framework, helped both to inform Board-level decision making and empower the entire organisation.

Additionally, we implemented a new crisis management plan to reflect the governance of the new operating company, and fully equipped the new Executive committee to perform with confidence in the face of future crises.

“Marsh Advisory helped us highlight some risks in priority areas that are already beginning to manifest. This also provides evidence for investment in activities that will help reduce potential impact.”

Crisis Capability

Resources

Dedicating requisite time, money, technology and human capital.

Strategy

Thinking, planning and getting organised.

People

Building capable, confident and equipped leaders, teams and expertise.

Process

Guiding how, when and where activity takes place.

How we can help

Scenario Planning: enabling effective decision making today and in the medium and long-term.

Strategic/ Communications Playbooks: providing action orientated plans for scenarios of high impact and likelihood.

Evacuation Planning:  high-level planning to support tactical implementation which is relevant to newly de-stabilized regions. 

Strengthening Crisis Frameworks: ensuring plans are fit for purpose in a new risk context.

Exercising & Simulations: stress testing new playbooks and plans, and providing an opportunity to practice organisational response to emerging risks. 

Learn more about Marsh’s other Advisory capabilities

We act as a trusted partner in the face of change, helping clients better anticipate future challenges and capitalize on emerging opportunities through proactive risk advice that builds resilience and confidence.

Learn more