Risk Management

Risk governance refers to the institutions, rules conventions, processes and mechanisms by which decisions about risks are taken and implemented.

We work with governing bodies (e.g. Board, Councils and Committees) to assist them understand and use risk information as an integral part of their decision-making. We provide advice on the role of the Board, Council or Committee in relation to their risk responsibilities and assist them to understand, evaluate and manage their governance risks.

Does your organisation exhibit any of the following?

There have been attempts to adopt risk management resulting in a mindset that ‘risk management is an overhead, doesn’t work, is too bureaucratic, boring or difficult’.   You now struggle to involve and motivate stakeholders.

Risk management activities are carried out piecemeal, in ‘silos’ or ‘cylinders of excellence’, using a variety of approaches.  You are concerned that the lack of integration leaves your organisation exposed and to an unknown extent.

There is an acceptance that an enterprise risk management framework will add value to your organisation, but you don’t know where to begin. 

If you can identify any of these ‘symptoms’, you will benefit from discussing your Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) requirements with Riskwest.  We will review your risk management programme and tailor a comprehensive enterprise risk management framework for you, taking into account unique organisational factors, including but not limited to

• Governance and Management;
• Documentation and Data;
• Technology and Tools;
• Reporting and Communication;
• Competency and Capability; and
• Culture

We will work with you to identify interfaces and gaps.  We will devise an implementation plan, broadening the scope of risk management to include every key business risk impacting your organisation.  All aspects of behaviour and management of risk will be transparent – from strategic and business planning to operational and project activities.

Realisable benefits that you can expect ERM to deliver include:

• Integrated operations;
• Improved cross-organisational collaboration;
• Increased recognition and uptake of opportunities;
• Informed decision-making;
• Achievement of organisational objectives.

Risk Appetite is widely defined as ‘the amount and type of risk that an organisation is willing to accept in order to meet their strategic objectives’.

We work with Board and Executive groups to assist them to understand and articulate the organisation’s risk appetite within the context of their specific internal and external environment.  We support our clients to develop mechanisms and processes to embed risk appetite into all aspects of strategic and operational decision-making.

Many organisations have been surprised by emerging and disruptive innovations which change their competitive environment.  Radical and evolving technologies, products or services can alter the landscape for entire industries and sectors and create greater risk and opportunity.

We recognise this changing background requires forward thinking organisations, and we support our clients in fundamentally revising their business or service delivery models based on sound environmental analysis and scenario planning.

Organisations need to focus on the risks that have a material impact on their ability to achieve their long term mission and strategic objectives.  These are not just an aggregation of the operational risks faced by the organisation.

We enable you to better understand the risks in the strategic environment in which your organisation operates – risks to be considered in setting the organisations direction, risks in developing and implementing the strategic plan and risks which need to be monitored and may require adjustments to the organisations strategic direction.  We work with you to ensure strategic risks directly align with your strategic thinking and planning process.

In order to achieve long term plans, organisations will embark on shorter term planning and delivery of services or products. There are of course more day-to-day risks associated with the achievement of these shorter term plans and successful delivery of the services or products.

We take a structured and systematic approach to understanding the risks which will present barriers to success. The approach focuses on having a clear understanding of the service at risk, what is critical to successful delivery and then ensuring there is a complete understanding of the risks that may impact the successful delivery of the desired outcomes.  We tailor this to how you undertake your business, which may include looking at business activities by division or branch, by following the business process flow or by tracking a service or product from start to finish.

The drive to create something new delivers a level of uncertainty which is unique to projects, and as such generates risks that need to be understood, evaluated and managed. Additional risk is created by virtue of the complexity of projects, whether that is related to interfaces, technology, commercial factors or relationships.

We support clients to develop an integrated, structured and systematic approach to the management of project risks.  Our clients can confidently identify, evaluate and assess risks in order to better understand how these may impact on the successful delivery of projects.  Our client can ensure controls are developed and maintained to mitigate the risks at each phase of the project, and communicate and consult appropriately with the key project stakeholders to develop a common understanding of the key risk issues.

Riskwest recognises that contracts, as agreements which create rights and obligations enforceable in law, help provide organisations with certainty and determinable rights.

Successful contractual outcomes, from a risk perspective, rely on the appropriate and effective allocation of risk between parties.  We support organisations to ensure poorly thought through contracts, with inconsistency in approach and application, do not eventuate.  In this way, organisations are not exposed to unintended risk, unreasonable liability and inadequate insurance cover.

Insurance, as an asset that stands behind individual and organisational liabilities, is designed to provide financial protection.

We recognise that without the correct identification and assessment of insurable loss, organisations can find themselves subject to direct and consequential loss which was not adequately considered and assessed at the outset.  Riskwest works with clients to ensure they have a systematic and comprehensive insurable risk profile, to mitigate the possibility of inappropriate insurance covers, and costly over or under insurance.

Many individuals and organisations are currently involved in planning, running, attending, supporting, insuring or sponsoring events. In each case, relevant individuals and organisations need to understand the opportunities and risks in that particular context, and satisfy themselves that an event is being managed effectively. This can be challenging against a backdrop of competitive event funding, and with the diverse nature of modern event activities, locations and audiences.

If you are an ‘Event Holder’, we assist you to follow a structured risk management approach based upon effective event planning process. This typically involves considering risk and opportunity identification and assessment in the:

• Concept and underpinning event rationale;
• Planning and budgeting;
• Licensing and/or ‘per missioning’ regime;
• Event implementation, delivery and management.

Where your organisation is supporting (e.g. through grants), insuring or actively sponsoring an event, we can assist you to put in place tools to evaluate that event holder’s management of the risks. It is important that your organisation is obtaining assurance that the event holder is able to demonstrate the adequate management of the key risks associated with the event, and the contemporary guidance on risk principles, framework and process is being followed.

Our range of services include:

• Event risk assessments;
• Health checks of existing event risk management;
• Mentoring and coaching;
• Establishment of Event ‘Risk Management Plans’, including policies and procedures;
• Facilitating ‘Lessons Learned’ sessions and/or reviews;
• Training and education (both in-house and public) in all areas of ‘Event Risk Management’.

For in-house training purposes, courses can be customised to suit your needs and ensure consistency with your existing policies and procedures. Other specialised content may be developed upon request.

It may be important to specifically consider insurable assets.  We assist property and asset owners with the management of risks whilst also providing a basis to inform potential insurers of the assets, of the protection in place to minimise the level of risk.

We aim to present an overview of the key risks to the property and business operations for the site reviewed.  It focuses on the insured perils and highlights where improvements may be made.

The arena of ‘safety and health’ is predominately concerned with the safety, health and welfare of people engaged in work or employment, or those affected by the way those activities are undertaken.

We recognise that individuals, organisations and society have increasing expectations in relation to the management of safety and health risk which need to be considered in the context of ensuring organisational efficiency and flexibility.  We work with clients to ensure their approach to safety and health is consistent with their approach to the management of all business risks, and evidences a targeted approach based on proportionality, transparency and accountability.  This allows Senior Executives to have assurance that safety and health is being managed across the enterprise, and that this is adequately reflected in the risk transfer mechanisms used.

Financial crime covers a broad range of criminal activities related to illicit financial transactions that are generally international in nature.  It affects not only individuals and organisations but also nations, and have far reaching negative consequences on entire economic and social systems through the considerable loss of money incurred.  It is commonly considered to include, run parallel or fund the following criminal activities:

• Fraud (including securities fraud, bank fraud, insurance fraud and identity fraud)
• Money laundering
• Electronic / cyber crime
• Tax evasion
• Bribery and corruption
• Embezzlement
• Insider trading and market abuse
• Terrorist financing
• Illicit drug trafficking
• Prostitution
• Organized theft
• Currency counterfeiting
• Illegal arms trade
• Human trafficking
• Kidnapping
• Gambling

Financial Crime may be committed by organised criminals, terrorist groups, corrupt government officials, business leaders, employees, customers, suppliers, contractors, external fraudsters colluding with staff members, individual criminals or opportunist fraudsters.  Today the international community continues to face the mounting challenge of combating it, with increasing international focus and regulations in compliance. These regulations are far-reaching and impacts not only financial institutions but also law firms, accounting firms, gambling establishments, precious metal dealers, real estate agents, and just about anyone who trades.

We will assist organisations to incorporate the basic Financial Crime compliance program framework with their internal risk and control governance framework. The governance framework supports the three lines of defence concept and ensures strict adherence to a firm’s global, regional or local policy, procedures / guidelines as well as regime-based legal and regulatory requirements.  Our range of services include:

• Financial crime compliance risk assessments
• Health check of existing financial crime compliance programs
• Establishment of financial crime compliance programs, policies and procedures
• Training and education in all areas of financial crime compliance (such anti-fraud, anti-money laundering, ccountering the financing of terrorism, etc.), targeting all levels of the organization from senior executives, managers and operational personnel (in-house and public)

Risk-based options analysis is used to identify which strategic response would best address the identified problem in a way that delivers the best risk return profile.

We assist clients to evaluate each option to determine the response which optimises the upside vs downside risk.  A structured approach is used to evaluate, measure and enhance the benefits, whist considering the strategies to minimise the downside risk.