As manufacturers seek to source quality goods at the lowest cost, supply chains that were once confined to a single country or continent have stretched around the world. Managers have become adept at addressing recurrent risks—frequent, low-impact incidents such as demand fluctuations or supply delays that affect efficiency. However, they have devoted less energy to designing supply chains that prevent or mitigate the impact of disruptive risks such as labor strikes, political unrest, regulatory shifts, and natural disasters. These events can have severe and lasting repercussions on operations, so manufacturers would do well to devise strategies that alleviate this risk.

Civil unrest in Venezuela has many shippers worried about the impact on the flow of goods into the country. Nelson R. Cabrera, director of business development with Lilly and Associates, has some advice on how to cope with the crisis.

Sedex Global, a specialist in aiding companies in the development of responsible and ethical business practices within their supply chains, has partnered with the World Bank Institute to develop the Open Supply Chain Platform.

According to Peter Quantrill, director general of the British International Freight Association, it was "hardly surprising" to hear the recent news that the U.S. has delayed new rules requiring all cargo containers entering the U.S. to be security scanned prior to departure from overseas for two more years, amid questions over whether this is the best way to protect U.S. ports.

Organizations around the world lose an estimated 5 percent of their annual revenues to occupational fraud, according to a survey of certified fraud examiners who investigated cases between January 2012 and December 2013. Applied to the estimated 2013 gross world product, this figure translates to a potential total fraud loss of more than $3.5tr.

The semiconductor and electronics industries have learned in the most difficult manner in the past few years how damaging business disruptions due to weather can be.

When DWT tanker Shoko Maru caught on fire recently it was described as one of the worst accidents in energy shipping in the past decade. And a recent study shows that product tankers are considered the most accident-prone shipping types, followed by LPG tankers.

Whereas business interruption insurance covers lost profits and continuing expenses as a result of physical damage to a policyholder's own facilities, contingent business interruption insurance covers such losses stemming from damage to the premises of a supplier or customer. Large companies typically have both types of insurance as part of their property insurance policies; smaller companies may not have the contingent business interruption extension.