Articles

Risk Management Companies

Risk management companies help keep you safe

The business world is extremely cut-throat, and there’s a fine line between success and failure. There are a lot of potential security threats that could hold the power to push your business over that line. There are few things more important than risk management in business.

Your company and leadership need to be able to identify, assess, and create a risk management system for these potential threats in order to reduce their severity and potentially eliminate them altogether. Risk management provides your leadership and employees with the tools they require to do so, as well as the knowledge needed to use said tools effectively.

There are two things that you could invest in that would greatly increase your chances of successful risk management. The first of these things that would benefit your business’s security is a risk management company. Risk management companies are companies that specialize in identifying, analyzing, mitigating, and reporting potential risks to your business.

Since their sole purpose is risk management, risk management companies are more trained and better equipped to handle security threats when they arise than your leadership team would be. That being said, the second thing you should consider investing in is a security risk management course for your employees and, more specifically, your leadership team so that they are able to deal with risks themselves if need be.

Not only can security risk management courses teach your leadership team how to identify, analyze, mitigate, and track potential security risks, but they can also teach them how to use crucial data and logistics to coordinate their security operations. In doing so, they can reduce vulnerabilities and optimize your business’s security measures to prevent problems before they happen.

Questions?

We can help! Talk to the Trava Team and see how we can assist you with your cybersecurity needs.

What Is Risk Management?

It’s a well-known fact that risk management is vital for all organizations and businesses, regardless of their size. That being said, what is risk management? What makes it so important?

To put it simply, risk management is the term used to describe the process of identifying a risk, analyzing its severity, and keeping it under control. Without proper risk management, businesses and leadership teams will be blind when it comes to potential danger to their business’s overall success.

Companies with successful risk management solutions have a much higher risk of success than those that may put it on the back burner. That being said, risk management can be difficult for a business to handle on its own. That’s why there are risk management companies available that specialize in handling specific kinds of risks.

For example, financial risk management companies are in charge of identifying and analyzing threats that are specifically targeting an organization’s assets, earnings, and/or overall financial growth. They use financial tools and resources to safeguard an organization’s economic value and may help manage exposure as well.

If you still don’t believe that proper risk management is an absolute necessity, then there are several risk management failures case studies have analyzed that you may want to look into. A good place to start would be with the many scholarly articles that are available here.

When it comes to finding companies to work with to establish proper risk management for your business, you’re almost always better off going with risk management company names that have a positive reputation tied to them. It also doesn’t hurt to look through some of the reviews left by businesses that have worked with them in the past.

A few of the largest risk management companies that you may or may not have heard of (as of June 2022) include:

  1. Avetta
  2. CCMSI
  3. OREM

…and more.

Risk ManagementDefinition And Examples

To help you better understand what exactly you should be looking for in a risk management company, below is the risk management definition and examples of different types of risks you need to have covered.

To start off with, the definition of risk management according to the Oxford Languages Dictionary is “(in business) the forecasting and evaluation of [financial] risks, together with the identification of procedures to avoid or minimize their impact.”

Other than financial risks, a few risks to know about include:

  1. Strategic Risk
    Most businesses have a business plan as well as several goals and objectives that they determine in order to optimize their business strategy. A strategic risk occurs when the business fails to adhere to the plan they have laid out, causing the strategy to no longer be optimized. This can make it difficult to achieve business goals.
  2. Compliance Risk
    All businesses are subject to state and/or federal regulations and laws regarding the way that they operate. If they operate within these parameters, there’s usually not an issue. Compliance risk arises when the business and leadership teams either fail to understand and therefore comply with these rules or try to find loopholes.
  3. Operational Risk
    As previously mentioned, most businesses have a plan and goals laid out to optimize operations. An operational risk occurs when there are flaws in processes, company policies, or execution of this plan. There are also a few extenuating circumstances that could lead to operational risk, such as unexpected events that are out of the leadership’s control.
  4. Reputational Risk
    Every business has a certain reputation that stakeholders and customers alike expect them to hold. Failure to meet these expectations can cause damage to the business’s overall success as stakeholders start to view them in a negative light and disappointed consumers take their business elsewhere.

The security risk management process is vital in almost every field, not just business. A very basic example of risk management in healthcare is the fact that every hospital has a legal team. These teams are well versed in the laws and regulations that healthcare providers and medical facilities are required to follow so that they are prepared to defend against compliance risks, should they arise.

When it comes to a few steps to take toward successful risk management, examples include information security, risk avoidance, identifying weak points in your business’s security, and preparing for risks before they arise.

Do you know your Cyber Risk Score?

 

You can’t protect yourself from risks you don’t know about. Enter your website and receive a completely free risk assessment score along with helpful information delivered instantly to your inbox.

cyber risk score meter

Insurance Risk Management Companies

Out of every industry out there, none are more closely tied to the process of risk management than insurance risk management companies. Since their sole job is to help people prevent and/or recover from failed risk management, they are as interested in (if not more so) providing successful risk management as their clients are in receiving it.

So how do insurance companies manage risk to their clients? Well to start with, a strong risk management framework for insurance companies gives them the backbone they need to better manage risks.

There are five main steps associated with risk management frameworks for insurance companies, which are as follows:

  1. Identification
    Not only do insurance companies have to identify current risks to a business’s wellbeing, but they also have to be able to predict where future risks may arise. In doing so, they can better reduce or even eliminate the damage said risks would do.
  2. Analysis
    While identifying current and potential risks is a must, it simply wouldn’t be possible if they didn’t have the necessary data and knowledge to do so. A good start is to leverage the preexisting knowledge and experience of a business’s leadership team(s) for insight that is specific to that business. Once they identify possible risks, they must then use what they’ve learned to analyze and estimate a few additional factors: how likely are these risks to happen, which areas of the businesses are they likely to impact, and how severe will that impact be?
  3. Prioritization
    Once they have been able to successfully identify a risk and estimate the aforementioned factors, they will begin the process of ranking each task according to said factors (i.e. the severity and likelihood of occurrence). This can allow them to pinpoint which tasks to do first and which can wait while those are being accomplished.
  4. Treatment
    Now that they are aware of which risks need to be tended to first, they can begin laying out a plan of action. Given that the previous steps have been completed properly, the risk management team should be equipped with everything they need to succeed in thwarting risks when they occur. That being said, not every risk can be anticipated so it’s also important to know how to best use the resources available to handle an unexpected risk.
  5. Monitorization
    Lastly, they will continue collecting data and analyzing the inner workings of your business to consistently and frequently update you about your business’s weak points and continuously optimize the treatment strategy.

The global leader in risk management and insurance consulting services, Gallagher Insurance, was established in 1927. They are an international business with nearly 40,000 employees worldwide in over 130 countries. According to their website, they contribute this success to their “culture of ethics and service”, which they use in their strive to provide excellent professionalism and risk management services to their clients.

Risk Management Firms

There are a lot of risk management firms out there for you to choose from, so it’s obvious that some will be better than others. While some will always be more popular, there really is no objective “best” when it comes to risk management companies. The one that will work best for you will be different than what would work best for others. It all depends on your business’s unique needs. That being said, top risk management companies are popular for a reason. But what would that reason be?

That’s a good question. We’ve already established previously in this article that a risk management company’s purpose is to help your business take on the heavy task of keeping your company secure. They identify weak points in your security and potential risks, analyze them, monitor said risks to prepare for action, prevent or at least minimize the damage caused, and report everything back to either you or your leadership team(s).

The reason the largest risk management companies do as well as they do is that they go above and beyond to accomplish the things listed above and more. For example, they provide top-notch customer service when needed to make sure you have the best risk management experience possible.

Risk management companies, especially financial risk management companies, can be the difference between a business’s success and its ultimate downfall if they don’t do their jobs properly. But the best risk management companies do more than the bare minimum needed to prevent a business from falling victim to these risks.

They train their employees to provide expert guidance to you and your leadership team(s) so that you will also be able to identify possible threats yourself and your employees will know what they can do to reduce the chances of a problem arising. Not only that, but they provide detailed reports every step of the way so that you are never left in the dark about your business’s security.

Trava is one of these types of risk management companies. We do everything we can to make sure that not only are our employees properly trained, but your employees and leadership teams know what to look out for and are equipped with the resources they need to prepare against a risk. We help provide you with the insight you need to protect your company. Feel free to book a demo by clicking this link.

Sources