Coping With Coronavirus: Five Strategies To Mitigate Business Risks — Lloyd Emerson Johnson
The last two years have presented several challenges in every industry. Although normalization is trying to be restored, the pandemics impact on businesses cannot be ignored.
Recently I read an article by Steven Minsky ( CEO at a risk management firm) who recommended a series of ways to convert panic into productive actions which organizations should explore. “These initiatives may include activities such as shifting budgeting from fixed costs to variable spending to provide flexibility in times of uncertainty.” Being a strategic advisor for over 35 years who believes and implements a well-informed and pragmatic approach, this article was of great interest to me.
Below are the five risk management steps that the article listed as ways for organizations to defend themselves against the pandemic.
1. Readiness Assessment
“A readiness assessment is a good place to start when organizations don’t know what their business continuity program should comprise. Industry and role readiness templates as well as pandemic-specific templates allow an organization to evaluate their business continuity program against a best practice standard and identify where gaps may exist.” This allows organizations to identify gaps, track progress and adherence.
2. Risk Management Plan
All organizations should conduct risk assessment to identify, prioritize any new risks or gaps in their existing structure for novel situations like pandemics , recession etc.
3. Business Impact Analysis
Not all risks in an organization can be treated the same way. By conducting a business impact analysis, the organization can identify which parts of the business are most crucial to its operations. Accordingly businesses can determine which parts of the organization to prioritize.
4. Policy Management
As the pandemic continues, new information will come to the forefront and new policies will have to be revisited and updated.
“For example, reviewing and revising a work-from-home policy will be effective only if dissemination of that revised policy is made with governance tracking for adoption across the organization.”
5. Incident Management
“Incident management is typically a highly siloed activity embedded within a process.”
During times of change management, a unified enterprise-wide mechanism is needed to evaluate the “effectiveness of mitigation and policy activities as well as to manage the exceptions.”
For example, in LogicManager’s 15-year history, 100% of business scandals were known at least six months in advance, with more than enough time to take action to eliminate most, if not all, of the downside.
One of the most important aspects of a stratrgic leader is learning. “The most important lesson to learn from severe shocks like this pandemic is that they represent an opportunity to permanently shift the markets in which we operate. Actions that may have previously seemed too difficult to deal with may now be addressable”
Read the full article here
About Lloyd: Lloyd Emerson Johnson is a results-oriented strategic advisor. With over 35 years of international, broad-based experience, Lloyd considers various disciplines in his approach to management and board governance. Through effectively evaluating all corners of a business, Lloyd Johnson has reinvented the roles of a strategic partner and stakeholder champion. He is a creative visionary who transforms businesses to be effective throughout all of their operations and finances. The pragmatic leader specializes in risk management and ensuring that businesses are prepared for uncertain circumstances.
