Risk

Can you identify the most serious risks to your organization? Did your risk analysis identify catastrophic risks like earthquakes, tornados, etc.? If so, you're not alone. Most organizations focus more on natural disasters and other catastrophes but less so on the more common risks that can cause problems any day of the week. This week's articles may help you better assess your actual risks and prioritize them as well.

Before they actually happen incidents are called threats and each is a type of risk with a likelihood of occurrence and a potential impact if it does. (Item #1)   Effective risk assessment is increasingly important to the success of any business. (Item #2)   Risk and emotion are inseparable. (Item #3)  

In order to manage change, it is important to understand the key assumptions done when assessing risks. (Item #4)   Are you familiar with the various types of risks? (Item #5)   In common with any risky situation normal risk assessment rules apply to managing social media - identify, record and mitigate risk. (Item #6)  

As always, we look forward to hearing your comments & insights regarding business continuity. If you have a topic you'd like us to cover, email me at [email protected].

Bob Mellinger, President
Attainium Corp

1. Business Continuity Management (3): Threat and Risk Assessment

The previous article on Business Impact Analysis (BIA) has outlined an approach to looking at your organization in a way that makes the recovery priorities clear. Firstly by quantifying the potential losses of failing to deliver a particular service or product and secondly by identifying all of the systems, staff, equipment that need to be in place to deliver it. This article looks at what you are protecting your organization against; those incidents that are serious enough to completely stop your organization from functioning, usually referred to as Business Continuity Incidents.
http://www.chasecooper.com/pub-art-sub/98-business-continuity-management-3-threat-and-risk-assessment.html

2. A practical guide to risk assessment

Historically, businesses have viewed risk as a necessary evil that should be minimized or mitigated whenever possible. In recent years, increased regulatory requirements have forced businesses to expend significant resources to address risk, and shareholders in turn have begun to scrutinize whether businesses had the right controls in place. Risk assessment provides a mechanism for identifying which risks represent opportunities and which represent potential pitfalls. Done right, a risk assessment gives organizations a clear view of variables to which they may be exposed, whether internal or external, retrospective or forward-looking.
http://www.pwc.com/en_us/us/issues/enterprise-risk-management/assets/risk_assessment_guide.pdf

3. 10 Ways We Get the Odds Wrong

The human brain is exquisitely adapted to respond to risk -- uncertainty about the outcome of actions. Faced with a precipice or a predator, the brain is biased to make certain decisions. Our biases reflect the choices that kept our ancestors alive. But we have yet to evolve similarly effective responses to statistics, media coverage, and fear-mongering politicians. For most of human existence, 24-hour news channels didn't exist, so we don't have cognitive shortcuts to deal with novel uncertainties.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200712/10-ways-we-get-the-odds-wrong

4. How do you assess risk in a changing business environment?

There is not any approach to assess risks that does not involve some level of judgment. It is done, for instance, to establish risk goals and tolerance levels, or to predict risk outcomes. This judgment needs to be done a changing business environment for most industries. Companies may or may not control change; however they need to control their response to change. In this post, I am sharing some comments to assess risks in rapidly a changing business environment.
http://mydailyexecutive.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-do-you-assess-risk-in-changing.html

5. Assessing business risk

A business risk is the possibility that an unfavorable or unexpected event will occur and reduce a business' ability to meet its objectives. Business risks can be broken up into many categories. The article provides steps that may help you assess and manage the risks your business faces.
http://businessbuilding.com.au/certification/unit/128

6. Why social media is moving up the risk register and why risk managers should be worried

Social media is here to stay with some analysts predicting that by 2016 as many as 40 percent of enterprises will utilize social media as a customer service channel. So why should this worry risk managers? Surely social media is the responsibility of the marketing department and aren't there policies and procedures in place to prevent anything from going wrong? Think again.
http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature1124.html