Your business as part of a web

Functions

Your company interacts with the “world” through its functions, such as sales, sourcing, logistics, human resources, treasury, R&D, production etc.

Events

Each of these functions is continuously being impacted by external events.

A few examples: changing demand, default of customer → sales. Delay of supplier, quality problems of supplier, raw material price → sourcing. Strike, oil price → logistics. Availability of qualified staff → human resources. Interest rates, fx-rates → treasury. Black-out → production.
Note: prices, rates and indices are nothing else than chains of events over time, hence time-series. Their impact can also be positive, e.g. raw material price decrease.

Impact

The impact on a function can be quantitative (EBIT) and/or qualitative on pre-defined corporate goals.

Examples: business continuity, reputation, customer satisfaction, deliver reliability etc.

  • Some events impact various functions at the same time.
  • Some events have indirect impacts e.g. via suppliers or customers.
  • Some events are correlated (probability to happen simultaneously)
  • There are cause-impact cascades of events.