Are you Risk Ready... Or Not?

June 2010 Issue

If you want a straightforward risk management guide, check out the latest book from Melanie Lockwood Herman: Ready... Or Not: A Risk Management Guide for Nonprofit Executives. Don't be fooled by the word 'nonprofit' in the title; it's loaded with practical explanations and advice on risk management that will be extremely beneficial to executives in the corporate and government sectors!

This book provides a practical and refreshing perspective on the key challenges of implementing sensible risk management programs. The private and public sectors have produced guidance documents (e.g., COSO, ISO 31000) that are process oriented and structured around the mechanics of risk assessment and the structure of their particular management framework. This book takes a different approach. It is clearly focused on the outcomes of risk management.

Herman starts with the premise "Why not risk?" and then walks the reader through the fundamentals of enterprise risk management so that they can answer key questions such as "Why are we here?", "What could go wrong?... or right?", and "What will we do, or not do?". It's rounded out with chapters on: "Culture: Changing our Attitudes and Behaviors" (I'm honoured to be quoted in that section!), "Risk Communication", and "Stakeholders and Risk", among others.

"Ready... Or Not" is a powerful thinking tool rather than a prescriptive handbook. It makes an excellent companion document to the COSO and ISO 31000 guidance materials because it fully explores the importance of understanding the context for risk management. As outlined in this month's Feature Article, an organization's context is uniquely dictated by the combination of its capabilities and its particular business environment at any point in time. It is this combination that determines the unique set of opportunities, challenges, and risks that an executive must navigate in the development and execution of key corporate strategies.

Based on my 20 years of experience helping clients in the corporate, government and not-for-profit sectors to implement proactive and systematic risk management at the operational and enterprise levels, I highly recommend this book for executives in ANY sector.

To order the book, visit the Nonprofit Risk Management Center

Follow the links to:

• Read this month's Feature Article - Announcing the Definitive Risk Managment Guidance
• Download a printable version of the entire June 2010 issue of the Risk Management Made Simple Advisory.
  
• View the Article Index to access back issues of the Risk Management Made Simple Advisory.