4 Excellent Reasons to Acquire the ISO 31000 Risk Management Standard

1 - The structure of ISO 31000 is accessible and includes:

• Simple definitions of terms, with more risk terminology covered in a separate ISO 31000 guide 73 reference paper. The goal and characteristics of risk management throughout the organization are described in the principles section. The emphasis is on risk management as a tool for generating and preserving value, taking into account the impact of cultural and human values as well as the requirement for customization to fit your company. It offers risk management as an integrated, structured, open-minded, and dynamic discipline that makes use of the finest available data and places a strong emphasis on ongoing development.

• The governance and decision-making processes are closely related in the Framework portion, which is centered on commitment and leadership. It focuses on integrating, planning, implementing, assessing, and improving risk management across the organization, as one would anticipate from a quality standard.
• The risk process is surrounded by communication, monitoring, and reporting activities and has the well-known central pillars of context, assessment, and treatment.

The guide succinctly covers the “why” (Principles), the “how” (Framework) and the “what” (Process) of risk management.

2 - ISO 31000 supports risk engagement across the whole business:

• The International Standards Organization describes ISO 31000 as “applicable to all organizations, regardless of type, size, activities and location, and covers all types of risk. It was developed by a range of stakeholders and is intended for use by anyone who manages risks, not just professional risk managers.”
• It balances the mechanics of risk (process steps) with the business imperative of raising risk to the level of strategy and objectives.
• It is non-partisan regarding risk techniques, which are instead covered – these are covered in the very useful IEC/ISO 31010 standard. Using IEC/ISO 31010 the inexperienced can learn, and the gurus can debate the pros and cons of different risk assessment methods, without complicating the core “Why”, “How”, “What” messages of ISO 31000.

In a fast-changing world, the guide points to having an integrated view of risk, providing a platform for informed decision making.

3 - ISO 31000 is easily adaptable to your business:

• Unlike other ISO standards, ISO 31000 provides guidance rather than being a certification platform. Since every business has different objectives, structures and competitive positioning, there can be no one size fits all approach to risk. ISO 31000 offers a single standard that can be applied to all parts of your business, regardless of industry sector, type or location.
• Despite being concise, the standard is not lightweight. Its value lies in being applicable to any part of a business, whether small or large. Projects, programmes, business units, departments and functions can apply ISO 31000 in their own way while conforming to overall business requirements for risk management.
• Every organization has a unique risk profile, making the flexibility of ISO 31000 a significant reason for its widespread adoption across the globe.

4 - ISO 31000 is easy to implement:

As a leading Risk Software provider, we understand how important it is that our Risk Management and Analysis software (Predict!) embraces the ISO 31000 Standard’s Principles, Framework and Process steps. Predict! delivers this within a seamlessly integrated working environment that focuses on speed, simplicity and a great user experience that encourages engagement.

Predict! facilitates ISO 31000 Standard’s approach by:

• Providing an integrated toolset that works across the whole organization.
• Delivering all ISO 31000 process steps, from context, assessment and analysis through treatment and integrated reporting.
• Enabling communication, consultation, monitoring and review in support of fast decision-making.
• Removing many of the barriers to successful risk management implementation: designed with ease of use at its core.
• Helping break down silos between different parts of your organization and connecting risks to their organizational goals and objectives.
• Satisfying the needs of different user roles, programs, terminology and process with its flexible configuration.
• Bringing the most important information to the attention of programme leaders, business functions, and the executives, through comprehensive reporting capability.
• Enabling users to see at a glance whether treatment plans are going to deliver the target benefits and reduction in risk impact.
• Prompting risk and action owners to update and status their assigned actions to ensure that decision-makers have an accurate picture of your risk profile.
• Providing a dynamic view of risk to enable review of strategy as needs require, and before it becomes too late to make effective changes.
• Making it easy for risk and action owners to quickly update information to improve engagement, efficiency and productivity.
• Offering seamlessly integrated analysis techniques: Monte Carlo and what-if (cost and schedule analysis), scenario analysis, bow-tie, controls effectiveness, checklists, sensitivity analysis, consequence-probability matrix, cost-benefit analysis.

Risk Decisions has designed Predict! to fully support organizations applying all elements of the ISO 31000 standard. Leading to great outcomes for your business.

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