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Risk Management Increases in Importance

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Leadership

Todd VanderVen, President of BSI Group

Todd VanderVen is President of BSI Group America Inc. Todd joined BSI in 2008 from SGS where he was Senior Vice President responsible for global strategy and development for all SGS divisions. Prior to this he held several senior positions at Eastman Kodak including COO for Kodak’s Healthcare business outside the U.S. and Chief Marketing Officer for their Healthcare Division. In this blog post sponsored by BSI, Todd talks about the changing aerospace industry and how he plans to navigate the new trends.

Question: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the aerospace industry this year? Over the next 10 years?

Answer: The aerospace industry will continue to be challenged to manage many aspects of risk. Examples of these risk areas include information security, sustainability, counterfeiting, business continuity, and conflict minerals.  Instituting proper oversight and robust risk controls enterprise-wide will become more and more necessary to be competitive. Emerging countries represent a potential threat to U.S. aerospace organizations, particularly if risks such as cybersecurity are not properly mitigated. BSI believes the aerospace industry is vulnerable to attack – and as such, needs to take the appropriate steps to expand their scope of activities to protect intellectual property.

Q: Where do you think the most significant growth will occur in the aerospace business in the next few years? How do you expect to manage that?

A: We’ll see significant growth in the commercial airliner manufacturing market, along with the associated development and security of global supply chains. We also anticipate growth in the commercial space sector, and development and production of military and civil unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).  The need for greater transparency in the supply chain and the associated risks, particularly beyond tier 1 suppliers will continue to drive the demand for governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solutions. Aerospace organizations need to instill the controls and GRC capabilities to bring greater clarity to high-risk suppliers and create a stronger supplier value chain.

Q: How do you envision aerospace industry consolidation affecting your clients?

A: Consolidation is an opportunity for improved standardization and transparency allowing aerospace organizations to utilize tools to provide real time support and analysis on suppliers, parts, and JIT (Just In Time).  Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and larger aerospace organizations will be able to institute better controls, best practices, and more effective and efficient processes with the smaller aerospace companies they acquire – leading to shorter supply chains, enhanced controls, improved risk management and tighter oversight.

Q: What role do you see technology playing in aerospace’s future?

A: The pace of technology will continue to accelerate in the areas of avionics, materials, and propulsion, which further underscore the importance of knowing your suppliers and protecting intellectual property.  Aerospace organizations need to have rigorous oversight, faultless compliance and robust risk management, as visibility into risks, and a methodology to mitigate those risks will be absolutely essential to be competitive. Technology is a huge differentiator and can offer aerospace organizations significant gains in performance, provided risks are known, mitigated and managed at every level throughout the supply chain.

Q: What role do you see management systems playing in the industry over the next 10 years?

A: Management systems will continue to develop and play a significant role for the aerospace industry. Specifically, these include safety management, improved quality management, environmental management, information security, cyber security and business continuity.  Emerging management system areas include collaboration, energy management and asset management, which we anticipate will gain momentum over the coming years.

One Company, One Solution. By packaging assessment, training and a management system toolset, BSI delivers a business improvement solution that combines it all in a comprehensive service offering and allows us to provide an integrated approach to meet the needs of an organization and embed excellence across the business. BSI presents a one-stop value proposition from the decision to improve systems through to registration and continual improvement. From start to finish, BSI helps turn complexity into simplicity.