Risk Management

Way too many risk managers, risk experts, and risk professionals are glass half-empty people.  Of course the role of risk management is to focus on  the potential things that can go wrong, but that does not mean that the risk manager has to be negatively focused.  In actual fact, it is that negative focus that has made risk managers the type of person that businesses wish to avoid rather than engage.

One of the most important roles of a risk professional is to be on the front foot with information. The expectations of the organisation, and most likely your CEO, is that as the Risk Executive you have an ear to the ground and an eye on the horizon.  So, how are we confronting the challenge?

Defined as showing leadership in the field of risk management, risk leadership is paramount to the success of successful organisations.  When we think about risk management in the context of leadership we are referring to the individual and team based position of stepping forward and determining the key risks and determining the best business response.

Within this magazine we explore a number of areas surrounding leadership in risk management ranging from thinking about risk management with a "heads up" approach, understanding your customer, peer leadership, social media risks and rewards and a special feature on the Top Risks of 2011.

We hope you enjoy this magazine and please feel free to provide us feedback for future editions.

Theoretical scientists spend many hours considering the universe and everything in it, about it and around it.  They ponder the very fabric of how things are made and also determine the theories around everything scientific in nature.

Does this have anything at all to do with risk management?

The newest infographic from Riskographics provides a visual guide for "knowing your risks".  Leveraging the AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009 Risk Management - Principles and Guidelines, this infographic provides a more effective way of communicating the risk management process.  The document itself contains 9584 words where as this infographic is all about the pictures.

We want to help in our way,  so here are the top 5 risks for the retail industry and some thoughts on potential controls.  Personally, as a consumer, if the retail industry did not have these as their top 5 then they were not doing risk management.  But, that is just my opinion.  Back to the risks themselves.

Recently I have been pondering a lot of my old posts and allowing them to reappear in my thinking. Essentially, I just wanted to take some time to rethink what is the "innovation of risk"? Have I answered that question? Not exactly. Instead, at this point,  I have thought that the key fact about risk is this - risk is old and stale.

Guest author Eric White, who leads the retail strategy practice at Wren, providers of physical security solutions used by some of the world’s most innovative and respected retailers, talks about how businesses of every kind face risks. But for many, risks are thought of as the catastrophic-type events that - as completely devastating as they would be - don’t necessarily represent the most pressing threats to the day-to-day business. The face of risk is changing. It’s not just about the traditional, obvious risk events like earthquakes, tornadoes, or active shooters. Increasingly risks are those things that can slowly eat away at your business and profitability.

Click the title to read more.