Transcript

SPEAKER 1

So risk management is not always about threats and the negative side of things. It's also about opportunities and positive aspects. Of if we did something that was potentially risky, could we actually benefit from it? So the thing I enjoy seeing that's part of everyday work is actually seeing the business taking positive risks and winning at it.

SPEAKER 2

It's about getting involved with all areas of the business. The great thing about enterprise risk management is you can go across a company or organisation, even wider than that, and understand what those individual elements of the business do. And no two days are necessarily the same. There can be things like regularly reporting, things like that. But equally, you can be doing a risk identification workshop with someone one day in one area of the business, and you may be doing something entirely different the next day. It's a really useful way to understand how a business operates and what are the key things that make it tick.

SPEAKER 3

I think the big grin is always caused by people if I'm honest. So it's when the chairman of the board references work that you've done. It's when your colleague says or your boss says, we couldn't have delivered this without you. It's when your colleagues say, we've just delivered some really important work here, which has made the business far stronger and far more robust. Those are the things that make me go home with a smile on my face.

SPEAKER 4

The satisfaction comes from good preparation, when I see people that take risk management as a serious business tool, as part and parcel of their day job. And I just- their days run smoother. It's because they've done the preparation, they are in a more stable environment. And that, as much as boring as that might be, for me, that means that the business is running smoothly. I don't like surprises. I don't like being up and down and up and down. I would rather- I'm quite structured. I want to know everything is in its place, and it's all just ticking along nicely. Thank you very much. That's a nice day in the office for me.

SPEAKER 5

One of my very famous things that I say all the time is that I've been in thousands of meetings in my lifetime and will probably go to thousands more. And the amount of those meetings where there's someone speaking about whatever it might be, and no one in that room understands what they're talking about. But everyone is just too hesitant to actually hold their hand up and ask that question. And they come out, and you see everyone turn round and say, what was he talking about? I don't know. Or they might have got it half an hour later, in which case, they've actually missed 20 minutes of good question or good thinking time that they could have had.

So for me, asking stupid questions is what it's all about. And the best people I've ever seen- very top levels, chief executive, CEOs and the vice presidents I've worked with in the past and the people I've met in some fantastic organisations, it's always the ones who aren't afraid to turn round and say, excuse me, what does that mean? That is what risk management is all about. Because if you don't ask those questions, then how can you make a decision based on that?