If you’re wondering how much risk management should become part of your organisation’s rulebook, you may already be looking around to see who else is doing it. Insurers and bankers are obvious examples, because their businesses are centred on risk calculation, whether in terms of setting insurance premiums or defining credit interest rates. Many insurers are also ready to discuss risk management with potential customers in a variety of different industry sectors. These can range from agriculture and aviation to sports and transportation. However, there are other perhaps unexpected examples that show how far the concept of risk management has spread in general.
Our first example has one of the best risk management mottos ever, even if it wouldn’t necessarily spring to mind in the business world. The motto is “Be prepared”, belonging to the Scout Movement initiated in 1906 by Robert Baden-Powell. More recently, Boy Scouts of America in particular has been publishing its “Risk Management” newsletters. Articles in the newsletters address risks and risk mitigation concerning bike safety, defensive driving, theft prevention and lighting strikes, among others. Another example, striking in the way that it promotes risk management and solutions, is the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. This organisation has a separate web site dedicated solely to risk management for its members and ministries.
While affiliation with any social or religious organisation is a matter of personal choice, these examples demonstrate that risk management is applicable everywhere, and certainly not the privilege of a few select institutions. The Scout Movement motto in particular gives food for thought. Can any other organisation today match the forethought of having built in the concept of risk management from its inception, over 100 years ago?