Business Management
Risks in business are normal - successful businesses manage their risks well, unsuccessful businesses don't!
Risks occur in every business and in every activity. It makes sense to ensure that your organisation manages risks as well as possible.
To quote the Institute of Chartered accountants in their paper on Risk management for SMEs:-
"It is clear that risk management is now a core business process and should be planned accordingly and on a continuing basis so as to reduce risk and volatility and improve returns." (1)
(1) - Risk management for SMEs by the Institute of Chartered Accountants
Business Risk Management
There are a number of reasons why businesses, especially SMEs, do not encompass risk management:
- We may have the experience and imagination to identify risks and propose ways of dealing with them, but very few of us have the mathematical knowledge to prove whether their methods of dealing with risks are proportionate and cost-effective when compared to the risk exposure.
- There is a common misconception that risk management is time-consuming and just generates risk registers, paperwork and boring risk review meetings.
- Whilst a number of software tools are available on the market, many of them are complex to use and require specialist knowledge.
The result is that few people see the point of doing real business risk management.
The risk management process can be transformed into one of the most valuable business activities if:-
- the maths are done for you
- the risks are always prioritised
- the effects of any actions you propose are instantly shown
- it is clear where your efforts will get the best return
- you can share out the work with your colleagues
- every change is recorded.
RiskAid Enterprise does all of this and more. It is a web-based software package, designed for collaborative team working, easy to use and yet very powerful. It supports the whole enterprise risk management process throughout your organisation. It helps your management and staff identify risks, assess them and work out the responses or actions to deal with them. It allows risks to be managed in a uniform manner throughout your organisation which means that everyone uses the same process for risk management and reports risk in the same way.
RiskAid Enterprise provides a hierarchical framework of risk assessments to reflect your business structure and strategic objectives. You can combine the results to see how a risk on the shop-floor could even affect the release of your next product. It assists in managing results and provides a mechanism for regular reviews, keeping management aware of emerging risks. This enterprise risk management approach replaces the "silo" mentality of separate risk areas such as Business Continuity, IT Security, project risk and even Health & Safety.
RiskAid Enterprise fulfils the recommendations of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), Turnbull, the IRM, Sarbane-Oxley and Basel II.