- Do the groundwork. Risk management is impossible without first acquiring an in-depth knowledge of your business. What are the different components that make up your organisation, what are its objectives and where is the business going? Consider any possible events and incidents that could influence outcomes going forward so that you have a full picture of where the risks (and opportunities) lie.
- Focus on the key vulnerabilities for your business. You can apply risk management analysis to virtually every area of your business – and spend a lot of time and resources on this. However, not all of these metrics matter and your approach will be much more effective if you apply risk management as a priority to those parts of the business where the biggest vulnerabilities exist.
- Create the right team. Risk management needs to be handled by a carefully chosen team – it may be necessary to delegate this responsibility to ensure that it is properly and extensively handled. Identify the individuals who will be effective when it comes to using risk management to improve the way your business is functioning. It may also be useful to have a manager who leads the entire process and who is responsible for some of the key functions of risk management, such as identifying the biggest vulnerabilities, creating reports and handling incidents if they arise.
- Make sure risk management is integrated into the business culture. To see true improvements from risk management it will need to be something that is inherent in strategy and approach right across the business. This means that those directly handling it have a responsibility to effectively communicate with everyone, from employees to executives. Even those who aren’t directly involved in the risk management process will need to have a sound understanding of why it exists and what measures the business is taking to ensure it is effective.
- Consider doing more with business intelligence. The data that is generated by business intelligence software can provide crucial insight, not just when it comes to risk management but across the entire organisation. Business intelligence tools can be used to handle a range of different elements of risk management to improve the way your business functions, for example by setting up a more effective and targeted incident management process. The opportunities that business intelligence analysis opens up include greater understanding of where risk management can be best applied as well as how to anticipate and handle change.
5 tips to improve your business through risk management
There are many benefits to fully engaging with a risk management process for your business. From improving decision making through to better preparing your organisation to cope with unexpected change, effective risk management is essential to ongoing growth and development. If you’d like to use better risk management to improve your business there are some very simple ways to do it.