Understanding The Importance of Risk Management Before It's Too Late

Darren Jacobs
July 26, 2018

Understanding the importance of risk management becomes increasingly more crucial as organisations continue to dive into the digital era.

Think Salesforce, Slack and Workforce. As businesses continue to integrate applications into their key business functions, they become increasingly reliant on them.

These applications are great for streamlining operations and costs. However, what are the security implications that come along with these apps?

So, What's Gone Wrong?

The 2017 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) stated that the number of data breaches due to “stolen or weak passwords” has risen from 50% in 2015 to 81% in 2017.

Organisations are only as strong as their weakest link, and humans are known for being notoriously bad with password complexity and creativity.

As organisations continue to navigate the digital unknown, more cloud-based applications and platforms grow. As these grow, the password-based security risk of the entire organisation increases alongside it.

This is just one of the many examples that highlight the importance of risk management. Risk is the main uncertainty in any organisation, so wouldn’t it be great if you could somehow manage it?

Organisations have continued to build themselves up with software and technology that helps their sales teams, human resources and marketing teams while neglecting their overall company’s security, and this is why risk management is so important.

Understanding the Importance of Risk Management

“The average lifespan of a company listed in the S&P 500 index of leading US companies has decreased by more than 50 years in the last century, from 67 years in the 1920s to just 15 years today”. - Professor Richard Foster, Yale University.

The lifespan of companies is decreasing because they do not foresee the importance of risk management until it is too late. But how could this be, given that understanding risk is so crucial to understanding the future of an organisation?

Think about it, an organisation could not define its objectives for the future without understanding the importance of risk management.

Over the last few decades, organisations have implemented risk management departments to their team. However, the longevity of organisations is still decreasing. An easy explanation for this is scalability.

Generally, these processes began as manual risk management processes. Beginning with handwritten risk management policies which then transformed into excel spreadsheets, however, that is as far as most organisations have gotten.

Do Your Research!

Taking your organisation’s risk management to the next level requires empowering employees with the right risk management technology software. While adding more cloud-based applications and platforms to your existing business model sounds counterintuitive to strengthening your risk management given the statistics I just listed, it all comes down to choosing the right software service provider.

The importance of risk management for organisations is not shrinking in the digital era, it’s increasing. The good news is that this digital era has, in fact, created a new way for organisations to effectively manage risk.

There are many risk management software providers around today. However, very few of them offer a solution that will allow you to see your risk profiles in real-time, as well as navigate towards your objectives with certainty.

It is vital not to go with the first service provider you find or one that is recommended to you by a friend. Many risk management software providers take a one size fits all approach, that is simply not adequate for the unique nature of the modern organisation.

Do your research and come up with a list of the best providers and try their demos. After using their demo and asking the questions you need to ask, you will be able to determine why choosing the right risk management service provider is essential for your corporate survival.

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