Risk Profiles: Change

For any business owner or leader of an organization, change is inevitable.  Whether forced by conditions beyond your control, or initiated internally to meet a specific strategic goal, every business will face change whether invited or not.  How that change is managed can have a profound impact on your business and ability to sustain operations.

When you envision change for your organization, think risk management.  If the change is internally produced, then undoubtedly there is adequate time for risk identification/analysis and development of strategies.  If the change is unseen, you will likely find yourself in a reactionary mode and will need to immediately begin risk assessments with the clock ticking.

If your changing the products or services you provide, have you done market research and the necessary due diligence to understand the types of risk you may be taking on?

If your moving operations into a new geographic territory, have you formally identified risks involved and developed a strategy to manage those?  Aside from logistical, supply chain and market conditions, you could be faced with a different regulatory and legal environment.  These are all things that need to be taken into consideration.

If you decide to double your workforce as a result of increased revenues, have you identified the areas of added risk, or in some cases new risks involved in managing a larger workforce?

One of the basic tenants of risk management is that every business activity creates risk, and certainly changes in your business should be flashing red lights that you might have evolving or new risks that need to be addressed.