Risk management

 

Knowing and managing risks

Companies and organizations need robustness - resistance to disruption - while remaining agile. They can develop more freely and successfully if there are no unpleasant surprises.

What large corporations, banks and insurance companies have long done also serves SMEs, communities, foundations and other organizations.

In technical systems, robustness is achieved through inner control loops, buffers and fault tolerance. The principle is transferable: A robust organization has the ability to withstand an unforeseen disruption without active intervention. Process-oriented companies and organizations can already achieve a high degree of robustness. With a developed risk management system, further quantum leaps become possible. Those who control risks prevent economic losses and damage to their reputation.
ISO 14001 and 9001 certified companies must have a risk management system in place. Companies subject to the Swiss Code of Obligations are obliged to work with a financially oriented internal control system (ICS). Companies are generally subject to EKAS Guideline 6508, which requires a safety management system, especially for "special hazards". It makes sense to integrate all these requirements into a common system.

Components of risk management are: Conformity with laws and regulations (legal compliance), control of chronic risks and insidious developments, response to crises and emergencies, and rapid restart after failures (business continuity planning).
What good risk management can do.

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• The board of directors or company management receives important information for assessing and managing corporate risks

• Management can make the right decisions and allocate resources

• Marketing and sales benefit from the company's good reputation and are spared delivery problems and legal disputes

• Production and warehouses remain able to deliver even in emergencies

• All employees benefit from good working conditions

• Authorities show confidence in reliable partners

• Owners and investors can generate sustainable profits.

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Convictions

Activities and inactivity are always accompanied by risks and, of course, opportunities. Those who take action and set things in motion should ensure that undesirable effects - operational risks - do not occur. But even those who do not move are subject to influences from outside, the structural risks.

Risk management brings structure, order and insight. By identifying and assessing risks, the company becomes confident in its decisions and sovereign in its actions.
Each and every one of us also carries out risk management in our everyday lives.
In our cars, for example, we use a wide range of risk indicators and protection systems, from tachometers and navigation systems to ABS and airbags.

Solutions must be adapted to the size and complexity of the organization. Less is often more, if the right thing is implemented.

 

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A simple but effective system must

• put findings and experience into a standardized language

• enable the right conclusions to be drawn and corrective action to be taken

• be able to document decisions and translate them into actions

• be able to show results in a measurable way, and

• enable budget and resource allocations.

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Consulting services

• Setting up and implementing a comprehensive risk management system tailored to your needs. Existing systems are further developed or supplemented

• 180°+90° scenario development

• Risk portfolio for GL and BoD

• Business continuity plan

• Protective measures test bench, put useless measures out of operation

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For entrepreneurs

How much HSE - Health Safety Environment is optimal for your company? Do you want to run your company in a "simple" legal and orderly way or do you want to gain more reputation, efficiency and value? Are you bothered by loss of efficiency and time because crises occur and you did not see the signs?

Is it about the minimum goal of "legal compliance" or would a more active strategy be more beneficial?

The answer is: build a risk management system in your company. Then the answers will reveal themselves. When it comes to safeguarding your corporate strategy and your day-to-day business, properly positioned risk management is the mother of your success.

In the following, three strategy designs that build on each other are shown.
 

1. Do what needs to be done

It may make sense to adopt a passive corporate strategy with regard to health, safety and environmental protection. This strategy is driven by the legal requirements, the necessary product safety, and the fulfillment of commitments made or existing to customers and other interested parties or to stakeholders.
Prerequisites for such a strategy are:

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• Manageable and rather small risks

• Precise knowledge of legal requirements

• Low raw material and energy costs

• No other benefits sought apart from "compliance".

2. cost-oriented strategy

Building on the basics of the passive strategy, a great deal of benefit can be generated for the company in the HSE area. Instead of a cost block, a thoroughly profitable profit center can already be created in the direct costs.

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Direct cost activities are in the following areas:
 

Energy
If expenditures for energy are high, it is worth taking a look at this area.

• Identify unnecessary consumers and switch them off

• Replace devices with poor consumption values with efficient devices

• Optimize processes with high energy consumption

• Use heat recovery

• Exemption from CO2 and electricity taxes through target agreements and efficiency obligations

• Sale of CO2 certificates

• Professional energy procurement

• Sale of active and passive control energy.

 

Raw materials and waste

• Savings can be achieved and efficiency generated by optimizing the use of raw materials, reducing waste and wastage.

 

Occupational health and safety

• Technical protection measures can reduce the ongoing costs of personal protective equipment

• The insurance premium for accident insurance decreases with falling accident and occupational disease figures (e.g. in Suva's bonus-malus system).

3. Benefit optimized strategy

In the HSE area, much more benefit can be generated for the company. It must be recognized that so-called soft factors can generate enormous, unfortunately unquantifiable benefits.

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• Occupational safety reduces costs due to interruption of work in the event of accidents, uninsured machine damage and absences.

• Health protection increases the performance and productivity of personnel, reduces absenteeism and insurance costs due to occupational diseases.

• Health promotion improves employee motivation and helps to maintain performance

• Noise reduction at the workplace improves the ability to concentrate and can thus uncover undreamt-of potentials

• High reputation attracts better employees and improves their position in the market.

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