Risk Assessment & Contingency Planning in Global Supply Chains Training Course

Course overview

A sourcing decision that looks efficient on a spreadsheet can carry exposures that never appear in a unit price: a supplier three tiers back sitting in a sanctioned region, a shipment held at customs because the Incoterms 2020 term was misread, or a currency swing that erases a quarter's margin between order and payment. Global supply chains multiply these exposures because every border adds a rule, a tariff, a jurisdiction, and a point where visibility drops. This course builds the assessment discipline needed to see those risks clearly and the contingency planning to act on them before they turn into stoppages.

The people who feel this most are the ones managing procurement and logistics across countries: a category manager weighing nearshoring against a distant low-cost source, a trade compliance officer tracking shifting sanctions and AEO obligations, an operations leader who cannot map who supplies their suppliers. The course gives them a repeatable way to score and compare cross-border risk using ISO 31000 assessment concepts, a probability-impact risk matrix, and country risk scoring, and to link those scores to practical contingency choices. It keeps the international dimension front and center, from geopolitical and trade-policy shifts to FX exposure and cyber risk that crosses borders as easily as goods do.

What makes cross-border risk a different problem

Domestic contingency planning can often assume a stable legal and currency environment. Global supply chains cannot. A tariff introduced in one market, a sanctions listing in another, and a sudden export-control change can each reroute or freeze a flow of goods with little warning, and the same disruption may be legal to work around in one country and prohibited in the next. That is why global assessment leans so heavily on structured frameworks: without a common scoring method, teams cannot compare a customs risk in one region against a supplier-concentration risk in another, and contingency budgets get spent on whatever felt urgent last quarter.

Multi-tier supplier mapping is where much of this comes together, because the exposures that cause the worst surprises usually sit below the first tier, out of direct sight. Delegates who want to pair this global assessment view with a broader planning toolkit often study it alongside Supply Chain Risk Management and Contingency Planning, which grounds the same discipline in day-to-day contingency practice.

Course objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Chart disruption pathways across the supply network.
• Score cross-border risks on a common scale.
• Expose hidden dependencies across the supplier base.
• Convert delivery terms into clear points of risk transfer.
• Trigger contingency responses to scored risk levels.
• Weigh contingency options against cost and lead time.
• Bridge policy shifts into decisions on specific routes.
• Withstand disruption from shared digital dependencies.
• Fund resilience upgrades using a consolidated risk case.
• Reassess resilience posture on a recurring cycle.

Course outline

Unit 1: Introduction to supply chain risk

• The added layers borders bring: jurisdiction and currency.
• Sources of disruption, from geopolitics to ports.
• How risk in one tier propagates through the network.
• Why assessment beats intuition for cross-border risk.

Unit 2: Risk assessment frameworks

• Using ISO 31000 to structure identification and analysis.
• Building and calibrating a probability-impact risk matrix.
• Country risk scoring combined with supplier factors.
• Turning a scored register into contingency priorities.

Unit 3: Supplier and logistics risk management

• Multi-tier mapping of concentration below tier one.
• How customs and AEO status affect cross-border flows.
• Reading Incoterms 2020 for where responsibility passes.
• Assessing routes, ports, and carriers for delay exposure.

Unit 4: Business continuity and contingency planning

• Translating risks into dual sourcing and buffer stock.
• Weighing nearshoring against regional diversification.
• Setting triggers to activate a contingency route.
• Keeping plans current as trade rules and footprints shift.

Unit 5: Financial and regulatory risks

• FX exposure between order, shipment, and payment.
• How tariffs and sanctions shift a route's economics.
• Country risk and rules that differ by jurisdiction.
• Folding FX and compliance factors into one risk register.

Unit 6: Technology and cybersecurity risks

• Third-party cyber exposure across an international network.
• How one breach disrupts goods and data flow across borders.
• Assessing data, connectivity, and platform dependencies.
• Practical questions for suppliers on cyber resilience.

Unit 7: Building a resilient global supply chain

• Combining supplier, logistics, financial, and cyber views.
• Choosing redundancy, diversification, and nearshoring.
• Embedding regular reassessment as conditions shift.
• Communicating global risk so leadership funds contingency.

How the course is delivered

The course is delivered through facilitated discussion, structured analysis, and worked examples, with guided walkthroughs of documented case studies drawn from real cross-border disruptions. Delegates work through documented scenarios and review case studies to practice scoring and comparing risks; they analyze and discuss, and do not carry out live exercises or perform drills. The aim is that participants leave able to run a credible global risk assessment and defend the contingency choices that follow from it.

Who should attend

The course is designed for global supply chain and procurement managers, trade compliance and risk professionals, and international operations leaders. It suits anyone responsible for sourcing, moving, or protecting goods across borders who needs a structured way to assess and plan for the risks that come with it.

About EuroQuest International Training

EuroQuest International Training, founded in 2015, has delivered more than 1000 courses to over 15,000 participants and is headquartered in Bratislava, Slovakia, with training hubs including Dubai, London, Barcelona, Istanbul, Vienna, Paris, and Geneva. This course is educational; it references trade rules such as Incoterms 2020 and standards such as ISO 31000 as subject matter only, and does not provide certification. The financial-risk and regulatory content is general education, not legal, tax, or investment advice, and requirements vary by jurisdiction.

Frequently asked questions

Do we carry out live exercises or drills during the course?

No. Delegates work through documented scenarios and review case studies, then analyze and discuss them as a group. The scenario work is analytical; there are no live exercises or drills that participants perform, and no operational environment is used.

Does the course cover the legal and tax side of tariffs and sanctions?

It covers tariffs, sanctions, customs, and regulatory exposure as risk factors you need to assess and plan around. This is general education, not legal, tax, or investment advice, and because requirements vary by jurisdiction you should confirm specifics with qualified advisers for your own situation.

How is this different from a domestic supply chain risk course?

The whole course is built around the international dimension: geopolitics, trade policy, customs and AEO, country and currency risk, multi-tier global mapping, and cross-border cyber exposure. A domestic course can assume one legal and currency environment, while this one treats those borders as the main source of risk.

Related courses

Delegates working on global supply chain risk often continue with related EuroQuest courses:

• Strengthen day-to-day risk handling with Managing Risks in Supply Chain Operations.
• Connect assessment to formal recovery planning in Risk Management in Supply Chain & Business Continuity.
• Look ahead to emerging pressures with Future Challenges in Global Logistics Management.
• Sharpen network performance through Global Logistics Systems Analysis & Performance Improvement.

Register for this course

To reserve a place or discuss dates, locations, and group bookings, contact EuroQuest International Training and our team will help you register for this course and arrange sessions that suit your organization.