Mastering risk management: A comprehensive guide

Taking risks is an inevitable element of doing business for companies pursuing innovation and growth. Making sure that those risks are calculated and manageable though is essential so that companies can reap the rewards of taking risks while protecting themselves from unwanted outcomes. Mastering risk management is vital to achieving this balance.

The foundation of effective risk management is understanding how and where it can arise. Risks will vary depending on the industries and markets business operate in and managers therefore need to discover the kinds of risks they may face. Are they financial, reputational, or affecting security? When and how might they be caused? These questions will act as the bedrock of your risk management framework.

The most critical risks that small businesses face are typically financial. Investments, cash flow challenges, and even the broader macro-economic environment will affect business. Fraud is another huge potential danger. This article will explore how to build an effective risk management framework that can help strike the balance between taking calculated risks and mitigating the fallout that small businesses may encounter.

Understanding risk management

Risk management is the identification and assessment of any event that may negatively affect a business, and their mitigation or prevention.

This can be separated into two coexisting paths – proactive and reactive – both of which must be explored to ensure an effective risk management framework.

Proactive risk management:

• Is a preventative measure
• Aims to predict potential risks by analyzing previous and ongoing events
• Estimates risk impact
• Calculates the probability of loss

Reactive risk management:

• Responds immediately to risk events
• Aims to reduce the impact of incidents
• Identifies the cause
• Feeds information back for analysis

Benefits of a risk management framework

In simple terms, a robust risk management framework benefits a small business by protecting it from potential difficulties the company faces. A well-structured framework enables managers and employees to understand the potential risks in their operations and guide them towards better decision-making that mitigates potential threats.

An effective and easy to use framework can help to reduce financial losses due to a lessened risk of scams, fraud, and security attacks and other risk. Allied with good training, such as in recognizing e-mail phishing scams, will give employees a better chance of staying safe.

Key steps to building an effective risk management framework

It is paramount to a business’s success to work on an actionable framework. For the best chance of success , these specific risk management framework steps should be followed:

• Risk identification: Research must be undertaken to locate all threats likely to target an individual business. These can take many forms – this article detailing signs of unusual activity is a good place to start the risk identification process.
• Risk assessment: Risks are then measured and categorized into most and least likely to impact the business, in order of severity.
• Risk mitigation: The business uses the information gathered in the identification and assessment steps to decide which practical tactics it will use to reduce potential impact. Common courses of action include regular password changes for employees, buying insurance, and using software with built-in protection.
• Risk monitoring: Each risk and its corresponding action is continually monitored to ensure efficiency. Results can also be used to improve techniques that are ineffective as technology improves.
• Regular review: The framework and risk related activities should be reviewed regularly to ensure it is up to date and working effectively.

Tailoring risk management for small businesses

The process of compiling a risk management strategy is fully customizable to the needs of a particular business. The business owner should therefore focus on customizing risk management to suit both their size and their individual needs. This will include the following considerations:

• Risk appetite is defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as “The types and amount of risk, on a broad level, [an organization] is willing to accept in its pursuit of value.”¹ This will directly correspond with financial goals and forecasts.
• Risk tolerance, however, is defined by the NIST as “The level of risk an entity is willing to assume in order to achieve a potential desired result.”² The business must recognize that some risks cannot be reasonably avoided. The only way forward is to calculate how much can be lost while maintaining successful functionality.

Risk management tools and technologies

Fortunately, there are a wealth of risk management tools that can be used by small businesses to simplify the process. As technology continues to evolve, guesswork is not required when creating and implementing a risk management framework. Tools and technologies such as PayPal’s trusted risk intelligence with fraud detection affords business owners an arsenal with which to protect their capital.

Best practices in small business risk management

For the greatest chance of success, businesses should seek to adopt proven best practices. These are tried and tested actions that will aid in keeping a business as safe as possible.

Business owners should implement the following:

• Stay up to date on fraud trends and share these with employees
• Keep all anti-virus software updated
• Use fraud protection tools
• Monitor all risks, including imminent, immediate, and projected
• Foster a risk-aware culture within the business, with appropriate training for all employees. For example, phishing awareness, password hygiene, and encouraging accountability.

Risk management is an essential component of enabling a business to reach its full potential while keeping it safe.

By using each step outlined above, a business owner can be confident that their business is in safer hands.