Risk is inevitable and taking and managing risk is part of what businesses must do to create profits and shareholder value. However many businesses neither manage risk well nor fully understand the risks they are taking. It's also a fact of life that all businesses, and individuals for that matter, engage in some form of risk management on a daily basis whether it's taking out insurance or deciding to proceed (or not) with an activity.

However while businesses may succeed without implementing a formal risk management framework, there are significant quantifiable benefits of doing so including:

• fewer sudden shocks and unwelcome surprises resulting in a reduction in management time spent ‘fire-fighting’;
• more focus internally on doing the right things in the right way and therefore more likelihood of achieving business objectives;
• strategy being appraised more effectively, leading to calculated risk taking and more likelihood of implementing change initiatives;
• the overall cost of risk is reduced.