In an exclusive interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Trevor Mapplebeck, Managing Director and Strategic Advisor at Marsh Canada, shares a grounded perspective on how small and medium-sized businesses can navigate rising uncertainty across global markets.
This conversation explores the real risks shaping 2026, from geopolitical shifts and capital constraints to cyber threats and climate exposure.
Interview By SK Uddin
As a Strategic Advisor to Marsh Canada’s key clients and prospects, Trevor Mapplebeck provides strategic guidance to enhance the company’s growth and operational effectiveness. He identifies and analyzes market trends, client needs, and competitive dynamics to inform initiatives. Trevor fosters strong relationships with key stakeholders to ensure alignment with Marsh’s objectives and drive client engagement. He collaborates across departments to improve service delivery and operational efficiency. By leveraging his expertise, Trevor leverages risk capital and analytics capabilities to develop innovative solutions that address client challenges and support Marsh’s mission, playing a crucial role in shaping the organization’s strategic direction and maintaining its leadership in the insurance brokerage and risk advisory sectors.
Trevor Mapplebeck has over 30 years of experience at Marsh McLennan, where he has held several leadership positions, including National Marsh Advisory Leader, Prairie Region Leader, National Business Development Leader, and National Specialties Practice Leader. His extensive background spans multiple geographies and industries in both public and private sectors. Before his current role, Trevor designed processes to help clients understand and evaluate their risks and risk appetite, developing alternative risk financing strategies that include insurable and non-insurable solutions, such as captive insurance companies and indemnity funds.
The Global Risks Report 2026 highlights geopolitical, economic, cyber, and climate risks shaping the business landscape. From your perspective, which of these risks should Canadian small and medium sized businesses be paying closest attention to right now, and why?
Given the current global environment, Canadian businesses are likely being most impacted by geopolitical and the correlated economic risk. We saw the disproportionate impact on SME’s from Covid and the 2008 financial crisis, and any economic downturn/recession will also have a material impact on SME’s in Canada. SME’s access to capital and liquidity is often constrained relative to public companies, and access to capital, such as debt, could become more difficult and come at higher costs, negatively impacting results and competitiveness of this sector of our economy.
Climate certainly does impact Canadian SME’s and will continue to become an increasingly challenging risk Climate uncertainty can have an impact on both phycial operations and the supply chains upon which these companies rely.
Cyber and technology risk will continue to grow as businesses develop and rely on AI. AI can be a significant amplifier of cyber risk – it will reveal cracks in a company’s technology foundation and gaps in fundamentals.
Economic and geopolitical uncertainty continue to affect markets and investor confidence. What practical steps can SMB leaders take to protect cash flow, strengthen financial resilience, and make more informed investment decisions in this environment?
Strong financial fundamentals are a core pillar of the definition of a resilient organization, and should be the top priority for business leaders in Canada and around the world. Maintaining efficient operational output is a fundamental requirement to keep revenue flowing, and ultimately keep positive cash flow. Having full visibility of a company’s supply chain (not just Tier 1, but also further up the value chain), having advance awareness of vulnerabilities and associated operational and financial impact is one example of what defines a resilient organization. Competitors could be relying on the same suppliers, therefore ensuring a strong relationship with key stakeholders is also very important.
Understanding risk and being able to effectively scenario plan possible deviations from a company’s business plan. Ultimately, all organizations, regardless of scale, have to be aware fo the financial levers and capital sources available to them. Having available credit facilities certainly helps weather challenging times. Insurance, as a form of capital, can certainly help insulate the impact on cash flow and maintain a healthy balance sheet. Lenders are potentially more willing to lend when they are aware a company has a robust insurance program, aligned to a company’s ability to take risk, as part of their credit evaluation.
Cyber and AI related risks are rising rapidly. For smaller businesses that may not have large IT teams or cybersecurity budgets, what are the most critical vulnerabilities to address first, and what foundational strategies can meaningfully improve cyber resilience?
Smaller firms should first focus on the vulnerabilities called out by cyber risk leaders — most notably ransomware and privacy/data-breach exposures — and broadly any “ever-changing cyber threats” that could exploit weak controls. These are the immediate, high-impact risks that keep leaders awake and can rapidly disrupt operations or harm customers.
Foundational strategies the report highlights as meaningfully improving resilience:
- Enterprise-wide engagement and collaboration: cybersecurity must extend beyond IT so people, processes and leadership are aligned on risk priorities.
- Clear decision-making structure: define who’s accountable for cyber investment and incident response to avoid gaps when threats emerge.
- Directed, prioritized investment: use focused assessment of current pain points and evolving trends to allocate limited budgets where they reduce greatest risk (ransomware, privacy breaches).
- Build confidence in defenses through measurable actions: assess controls, document risk management choices, and track improvements to raise justified confidence in protection levels.
Together these steps create a pragmatic risk-management posture for smaller businesses: prioritize protection against ransomware and privacy breaches, embed cyber responsibilities across the organization, establish clear governance, and align scarce resources to the highest-impact controls and resilience measures.
https://www.marsh.com/en/services/cyber-risk/insights/cyber-catalyst.html
The 300,000 Voices research explores how people feel, work, and engage with AI in a changing global landscape. How should Canadian SMB leaders think about workforce risks such as misinformation, digital trust, and AI adoption, while still maintaining productivity and morale?
Canadian SMB leaders should read the 300,000 Voices findings as a signal that AI is not just about productivity, but also information and trust. So our research speaks to three related risks affecting firms (misinformation, fragmented AI use, and disengagement) that share a common root: when organizations don’t provide clarity, like this people default to whatever is closest and most familiar, whether that’s a colleague’s opinion, an unapproved tool, or a lower level of effort.
Start with trust. Our research shows trust migrating sharply toward peers and away from institutions: trust in “people like you” hit 80%, roughly 2.5 times trust in government. Meanwhile, personal fear of falling for misinformation rose from 61% in 2022 to 71%. Inside a company, that means confusion doesn’t stay “out there.” When there’s confusion around information, people default to whoever is closest and informal channels outpace official ones. The practical response for firms is straightforward: create authoritative sources of information, communicate updates on a predictable schedule, and set clear standards for verifying anything that touches customers, safety, or financial decisions.
How you adopt AI will help shape trust. One of the key risks around AI adoption is fragmentation with improper oversight. Two-thirds of employees already interact with AI in human-like ways. However, usage splits sharply by generation: 58% of Gen Z use it multiple times a week at work; while 45% of boomers have stopped entirely. That divide can quietly break workflows: teams produce inconsistent work, tasks take different amounts of time depending on who’s doing them, and there’s no shared standard for what a finished product should look like. Without a small number of clear boundaries – like approved tools, data limits, mandatory human review points – you risk getting “shadow AI” where some are using tools without proper safeguards. And that ambiguity, of not knowing what’s sanctioned, what “good” looks like, or where AI starts and human judgment begins, then feeds into the third risk.
On productivity and morale, the report finds that a bigger risk than resignation is bare adequacy. Fulfillment jumped from 8th to 2nd among workplace grievances in two years, trailing only pay. People are staying but reducing discretionary effort. At the same time, demand for training has nearly doubled since 2021: it’s now the fastest-rising workplace priority measured. But this comes at a time where technical skill half-lives have collapsed to two-to-three years. The implication is: if you want AI’s productivity gains without a morale hit, put some of those savings back into training and skill development and be clear with your employees. If you automate tasks without showing people where they’re headed, you end up with a faster operation that people have quietly checked out of.
So the question leaders should be thinking about is the following: does your business provide enough clarity, structure, and investment for people to trust the system they’re working inside? Getting that right means treating three things as connected: how clearly you communicate, how deliberately you roll out AI, and how consistently you invest in your people’s skills.
Risk capital and insurance are often seen as defensive tools. How can SMBs use risk management and capital strategies more proactively to build competitive advantage and long term stability?
As noted earlier, insurance is a form of capital, and only one of the financial levers SME’s can use to protect balance sheet from volatility. Unlike debt, insurance does not need to be directly paid back when accessed. However, it is important for leaders to also know when insurance provides economic value for their company, relative to other forms of capital. Some forms of insurance can be quite liquid, providing very quick access to capital. However others, like Property insurance in the event of a fire, flood, etc. can take some time to evaluate before securing proceeds from insurers. The time value of money needs to be considered when determining what risks to retain and what to transfer via insurance. SME’s must take risk in order to build a business and drive profitable revenue. Generally speaking, in today’s terms, insurance can be a very efficient form of capital that be relied upon to protect the balance sheet while enabling the company to continue to take risk in pursuit of tehri strategy.
Looking ahead three to five years, what does a resilient Canadian small business look like? What mindset shifts, governance practices, or partnerships will separate prepared organizations from those that struggle?
Culture is a huge element that at times gets overlooked or undervalued. To build or maintain resilience, we see successful organizations being able to make nimble decisions, using data-driven scenario planning to constantly review business plans and strategy. Building and leveraging a network of external stakeholders can also assist in building resilience. Depending on corporate structure, this could include external Board members or advisors. OF course, having a strong balance sheet, and having multiple sources of capital available, will continue to be critical for SME’s to survive and thrive in these exciting times.
There is no historical playbook for the pace of change and risk we are facing , and we certainly expect this to continue over the next 3-5 years.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CanadianSME Small Business Magazine. Our platform is dedicated to fostering dialogue and sharing insights that inspire and empower small and medium-sized businesses across Canada.
