Riskology

There’s no doubt that 2021 presented some serious challenges for the vast majority of people around the world. As we continued to battle through the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses were also faced with a host of other challenges, from cyber attacks and extreme weather events, to business interruptions due to staff shortages and disruptions to the supply chain.

A massive component of owning or running an organisation is making sure it is in compliance with external and internal regulations and policies in order to protect it from the risks caused by non-compliance. Compliance risk management is the process of understanding and managing compliance with laws and regulations and helping to better manage the risks associated with non-compliance.

After the challenges of 2020 and the continuing impact of the global pandemic, risk awareness and prevention has taken on a whole new level of significance for businesses everywhere.

Trends show that risks faced by Australian businesses are rapidly changing and there are new ones to worry about every year. Therefore, the best course of action would be to annually keep aware of and prepare for the biggest risks faced by Australian businesses. To give you some perspective, cyber incidents, which was ranked as the 15th biggest risk for businesses just seven years ago, is now the number one business risk! 

When creating an enterprise risk management plan for your organisation, an integral component to your framework will be Key Risk Indicators (KRIs). Key risk indicators measure the potential risk related to a specific action that could negatively affect your company as well as the likeliness of risks occurring. You can think of them as early warning signals that alert your organisation to financial, operational and reputational issues, to name a few, so you can take early action to avoid or mitigate the possible risks. They are typically quantitative, often in the form of percentages, and when detected, serve as an impetus for deciding how to take action.