GROW, CHANGE and THRIVE Asses substantial change, review progress, continually improve.
Reviewing business performance alongside the checks and balances that are in place, helps you to ensure that the risks your business is taking are delivering what it actually needs. You would also do well to encourage your business leaders to be alert to and adapt to, change, both within and beyond your organisation. Learning lessons and acting upon them has been proven time and time again to be a key element to thriving rather than just simply surviving. This is why reviewing progress at various stages (rather than just at the end of a task, process or project) can really help your business to stay on the road to success, navigating decisions at the right time.
look back to look forward – reflection
Now more than ever, organisations can really benefit from improving their approach to managing risk, to meet the demands of an ever-changing world of business. This is because doing risk management the ‘Doing Good Business Well’ way will give you plenty of information to review about the live issues, challenges and opportunities your staff face, whenever you need it.
The tough bit is integrating whole organisation risk management with strategy and performance. This is a new concept for very many businesses, with risk management often being managed as a totally separate function, in isolation from the front line workers (who incidentally, often bear the most external exposure) and one department speaking a different language to the other (e.g. financial speak, legal speak, commercial speak) so things don’t knit together very well….. or make a lot of sense as a whole.
Improving your organisation’s approach to risk management will help you to………
GROW – Sees us looking at performance data and how to use our uncertainties (business risks) to gain competitive advantage. Upon review, management may also begin to understand how implementing the right arrangements for managing risk – a robust business risk framework – can deliver business intelligence, which positively impacts their choices in strategy and setting performance indicators. By following our ‘Doing Good Business Well’ methodology, which explains all this in layman’s terms, we begin to see an enriched dialogue between management, executive leaders, and Boards, alike.
CHANGE – Assess Substantial Change requirements – By using data, which has a language that is consistent across our organisation, we can gain a new and accurate perspective about the activities and challenges our first line and operations are facing. When we consider the language we use to do this, we should also think about communication methods, culture (including politics), context, and current priorities. At no time is communication more important than during a period of change. We could now have the tools to become more effective and agile in our response to the need for change, making the most of opportunity and protecting the business from potential threats.
THRIVE – Reviews the Risk Status of our overall business. It summaries how well we are achieving against our targets and greater mission statement (what we set out to do in the first place). We can also use risk status to keep an eye on the organisations capability, capacity and willingness or ability to adapt and grow. Doing this well is dependent upon the way we manage our business’s risks. Businesses need to change and adapt to the future to consistently provide the benefits outlined in their strategy and business plans. With the right focus, the benefits derived will by far outweigh any investments made in the implementation of a risk framework. Providing organisations with confidence in their ability to handle the future.