The Business Continuity Institute (BCI) with the crisis exercise platform Conducttr, has published its Horizon Scan report 2025. It’s the BCI’s annual study of the top risks and threats that organizations have faced over the past 12 months, and those that are expected over the coming years.
Cyber was rated highest as a risk, both looking to the next year, and the next five to ten years. The report stated: “Practitioners perceive the future threat landscape as a complex combination of digital challenges, climate risk and geopolitical uncertainty. Dependencies are an additional major concern. Whether this is due to a supplier disruption or a critical infrastructure failure, external parties to the organization are a source of worry to practitioners, since complex interdependencies can quickly reduce visibility over risk.”
The most frequent and impactful events in the past 12 months, that concern staff well-being, are defined as ‘safety incidents’. That said, digital threats still remain a noticeable concern and should not be underestimated, according to the report; cyber attacks are rated second, and fraud (and attempted fraud) third.
Disruptions
For the first time since 2017, extreme weather is the single largest cause of disruption over the past 12 months. In the previous five years, digital threats dominated. As for the most common consequences of disruptions for organisations, customer complaints came first. According to the report: “Respondents pointed out how disruptions can hinder productivity while internal expectations remain the same, which leads to increased stress and potential mental health issues.” This introduces the theme of personal resilience among the workforce, the report added.
Introducing the report for the BCI, the institute’s thought leadership manager Maria Florencia Lombardero Garcia stressed the value of human resources. She said: “While threats may range in nature and impact, organizations must protect their most vital asset, their people. Attention towards health and safety has grown over the past five years and yet there are gaps in the risk perception that the report examines in detail to raise awareness among the community.”
How to horizon-scan
As for how business continuity practitioners go about horizon-scanning, while advanced tools for risk analysis are becoming ever more popular, the BCI found still ‘a significant manual and human component’. The international standard for Business Continuity Management Systems, ISO 22301, remains the dominant framework, though full certification is less common than alignment with the standard, a survey found. Interviewees stressed that while financial loss is often the most visible consequence, reputational damage, operational inefficiencies, and workforce challenges are equally demanding, requiring investment in technology and human resources.
Further reading
You can freely download the 57-page report at the BCI website. You have to sign up, but do not have to be an institute member. Visit https://www.thebci.org/resource/bci-horizon-scan-report-2025.html.
