9 Summary of Session 1

You are almost at the end of Session 1 so it’s a good time to recap what you’ve covered and take a look at what you will cover in the rest of the course.

The main learning points that have been covered in this session are:

• what is risk?
• examples of the ‘real world’ impacts of risks
• risk-based decision making
• a brief review of the historical background to the emergence of risk management by organisations
• an introduction to common risk management standards.

You have seen that there are different definitions for risk, but the one typically used in business is ‘the effect of uncertainty on objectives’.

You have looked at some examples of where risks have happened (from now on these will be called ‘incidents’) and the impact that this can have. You have seen that the ultimate consequence of bad risk management can be companies going out of business, catastrophic damage to the environment and even people losing their lives.

Because of these consequences certain professional bodies require their members to consider risks, and corporate governance codes place an onus on a company board to understand and manage risk.

You have taken a look at some of the day-to-day decisions people take that involve risk and noted that different people are prepared to take different levels of risks. This concept will be revisited in future sessions when you look at ‘risk appetite’ (the level of risk people are prepared to accept).

Looking forward: In future sessions you will dig more deeply into the different steps in the risk management process; you’ll explore ways in which to systemise this and build it in to the day-to-day running of a business; you’ll look at some of the behavioural factors that can cause things to go wrong; and you’ll hear from experts on their real-world risk management experiences.

Now proceed to Session 2 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .