Our principal risks and uncertainties are outlined below. These are the most significant risks that may adversely affect our business strategy, financial position or future performance. The risk assessment process evaluates the probability of the risk materialising and the financial or strategic impact of the risk. Those risks which have a strong probability and significant impact on strategy, reputation or operations or a financial impact greater than £40 million are identified as principal risks. The risk assessment and reporting criteria are designed to provide the board with a consistent, Group-wide perspective of the key risks. The reports to the board, which are submitted every six months, include an assessment of the probability and impact of risks materialising, as well as risk mitigation initiatives and their effectiveness.
We conduct regular risk reviews to identify risk factors which may affect our business and financial performance and to assist management in prioritising their response to those risks. Our Group internal audit function facilitates risk reviews with each business, shared service operations and corporate functions, identifying measures and controls to mitigate these risks. These reviews are designed so that the different businesses are able to tailor and adapt their risk management processes to suit their specific circumstances. Management is responsible for considering and executing the appropriate action to mitigate these risks whenever possible. It is not possible to identify every risk that could affect our businesses, and the actions taken to mitigate the risks described below cannot provide absolute assurance that a risk will not materialise and/or adversely affect our business or financial performance.
In addition to the principal risks described here, further information on other risks and how they are addressed can be found here.
| Principal risks | Mitigating factors |
|---|---|
| Our education, business information and book publishing businesses will be impacted by the rate of and state of technological change, including the digital evolution and other disruptive technologies. | We are transforming our products and services for the digital environment along with managing our print inventories. Our content is being adapted to new technologies across our businesses and is priced to drive demand. We develop new distribution channels by adapting our product offering and investing in new formats. We are actively monitoring contraction in the consumer book market to minimise the downturn of bankruptcy. |
| Investment returns outside our traditional core US and UK markets may be lower than anticipated. | We draw on our experience of developing businesses outside our core markets and our existing international infrastructure to manage specific country risks. We have strengthened our financial control and managerial resources in these markets to manage expansion. The diversification of our international portfolio, and relative size of ‘emerging markets’ in relation to the Group, further minimises the effect any one territory could have on the overall Group results. |
| Our US educational solutions and assessment businesses may be adversely affected by changes in state and local educational funding resulting from either general economic conditions, changes in government educational funding, programs, policy decisions, legislation at both at the federal and state level and/or changes in the state procurement processes. | We actively monitor changes through participation in advisory boards and representation on standard setting committees. Our customer relationship teams have detailed knowledge of each state market. We are investing in new and innovative ways to expand and combine our product and services to provide a superior customer offering when compared to our competitors, thereby reducing our reliance on any particular funding stream in the US market. We work through our own government relations team and our industry trade associations including the Association of American Publishers. We are also monitoring municipal funding and the impact on our education receivables. |
| A control breakdown or service failure in our school assessment businesses could result in financial loss and reputational damage. | We seek to minimise the risk of a breakdown in our student marking with the use of robust quality assurance procedures and controls and oversight of contract performance, combined with our investment in technology, project management and skills development of our people. |
| Our reported earnings and cash flows may be adversely affected by changes in our pension costs and funding requirements. | We review our funding arrangements every three years and will take steps to ensure pension funding plans are sufficient to meet future liabilities without unduly affecting the development of the company. |
| Our intellectual property and proprietary rights may not be adequately protected under current laws in some jurisdictions and that may adversely affect our results and our ability to grow. | We seek to mitigate this type of risk through general vigilance, co-operation with other publishers and trade associations, advances in technology, as well as recourse to law as necessary. Data rights management standards and monitoring programmes have been developed. We have established a piracy task force to identify weaknesses and remediate breaches. We monitor activities and regulations in each market and take legal action where necessary. |
| A major data privacy breach may cause reputational damage to our brands and financial loss. | Through our global security office under the direction of our Chief Security Officer, we have established various data privacy and security programmes. We constantly test and re-evaluate our data security procedures and controls across all our businesses with the aim of ensuring personal data is secured and we comply with relevant legislation and contractual requirements. We regularly monitor regulation changes to assess impact on existing processes and programmes. |
| Operational disruption to our business caused by our third party providers, a major disaster and/or external threats could restrict our ability to supply products and services to our customers. | We have developed business continuity arrangements, including IT disaster recovery plans and back-up delivery systems, to minimise any business disruption in the event of a major disaster. The governance structure, overseen by a global coordinator, provides the capability to centrally monitor all related activities. Full contingency plans have been completed for all high and medium risk locations and are updated on a regular basis. Insurance coverage may minimise any losses in certain circumstances. |