Introduction to Risk Management

Risk management has become an integral part of anyand methods to calculate risk differ from domain to
business model as the organizations are going globaldomain. The definition of risk could be different for
and the market situations are increasingly becomingsecurity and different for an engineering project. It
more dynamic. As per the ISO 31000 definition, risk isalso differs for different sectors. There are different
'the effect of uncertainty on objectives'. This 'effect'standards established for financial portfolios, public
can either be positive or negative. Therefore, riskhealth and safety, project management etc.
management can be defined as the process ofThere are many strategies to manage risks which
identification, then assessment, and thereafter, themay differ from industry to industry. The different
prioritization of various risks and minimizing,strategies include transferring the risk to another
monitoring, and taking control of the probability andcompany, avoiding anticipated risks, implementing
impact of such unfortunate events by coordinatedplans to reduce the negative impact which may be
application of all the resources, in order to maximizecaused due to the risk, and finally accepting either
the gains from possible opportunities. Risks can arisesome or all the consequences arising out of the risk.
from uncertainties which exist in financial markets,Although there are some brilliant standards
legal liabilities, project failures, credit risk, naturalestablished for risk management that have increased
accidents, and disasters and even from deliberatethe confidence and stability in the estimates and
attacks.decisions taken to combat risks, some of these are
There are many standards being developed for riskcriticized for not being able to show any
management by the Project Management Institute,improvement in either reducing such risks or in
National Institute of Science and Technology, ISOpreventing them from emerging in the first place.
standards, and the actuarial societies. The definitions