Risk management, an end in itself? A morning session with Marinus de Pooter

A manager's ultimate goal is to future-proof his area of responsibility. To this end, he should ask himself a few questions beforehand. Who are my key stakeholders? What do they expect from me? And what do they value?

Risk management has become one of many management systems within a company. That's a shame, Marinus de Pooter argued this Friday morning at ARC People. In everyday life, people are constantly assessing and possibly avoiding risks based on experience and intuition. Why should it be any different in business? Experts from different levels of the company should use their those experiences and intuition to jointly identify and manage risks. Risk management should be reintegrated into daily business operations. This is what De Pooter calls the intuitive risk process.

Risk management, by the way, is not just about possible events that could threaten the achievement of objectives. "A risk, in short, is a meaningful uncertainty", says de Pooter, "and thus potentially impacts something you value." Therefore, opportunities should also be part of risk management. After all, both threats and opportunities can affect the future-proofing of your business.

A good risk manager should therefore assist management in making important strategic choices by outlining both opportunities and threats, preferably in as little jargon as possible. Anything with the word "risk" in it puts people off. If you want to be heard more: rather than calling yourself "risk manager," call yourself something like future-proofing consultant or opportunity manager, for example, is De Pooter's advice.

Authors Raviena Kapitao and Sarah Zweekhorst are both working as Audit trainees at ARC People at the time of writing. They sat down with risk management expert Marinus de Pooter at a monthly return day of the traineeship.