What can we do about the weather?

摘要

Weather, whether it is the right or wrong type of weather, has an impact on many different business activities. Just take the headlines from one page of the UK companies news in the Financial Times on one day in November 2005: 1. (Luxury clothes maker) pins its hopes on cold winter; 2. (Drinks group) suffers blow from US hurricanes; and 3. (Supplier of portable power generators) benefits from year of extreme weather. And this was without looking at the international pages and some of the estimates of the costs that the 2005 hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma have inflicted on various insurance and reinsurance companies. Weather can impact the financial performance of almost any company. Above or below average temperatures, rainfall, winds or snow can impact costs and/or revenues of many companies - it is not just an issue for ice-cream companies, as the above headlines show.