Developing effective corporate early warning systems

In this article Tony Hubert reviews contemporary thinking and practices in a number of European companies concerning prediction of crisis and possible corporate failure. He distinguishes between short-term and longer-term approaches and reports on contrasting concerns in different countries. He draws particular attention to the issue of development of effectiveness in the alternative approaches, concluding that this arises from concern by those primarily involved in company direction rather than by outside experts, and by the early warning systems being embedded in the control systems used in normal working rather than being developed to cope with a crisis.