Managing a business is even more demanding when market conditions are harsh or uncertain, and with South Africa having recently experienced a ratings downgrade, times couldn’t be tougher for organisations. On the global front we are witnessing the rise of sophisticated cyber crimes with organisations being held to ransom by hackers.
There is no doubt that planning becomes that much more difficult when everyone – your business, its customers and your suppliers – is facing rising prices, falling sales, shrinking margins and cashflow challenges.
The key to successfully negotiating such problems is to clearly understand your risks, explains Alex Roberts at CURA Software. Taking appropriate action can make it easier for your business to survive in tough economic conditions such as those we currently face, and the first step here is to undertake a risk assessment to enable you to identify your company’s weaknesses and threats, as well as your strengths and opportunities.
“Risks can come in a multitude of forms and can be large or small and the result of either external or internal factors. Moreover, they may be sector-specific or linked to wider economic considerations. For this reason, you will want to be able to better manage your company’s risk by identifying, analysing and evaluating such risks as rapidly as possible.
“Often what passes for enterprise risk management is little more than a periodic assessment of historical data which seldom delivers any lasting value. In fact, quite often a lack of risk management maturity keeps the organisation’s focus purely on enterprise risk assessment, for governance and reporting purposes. CURA, however, has the ability to move the enterprise beyond simple assessment and into the realm of true enterprise risk management,” says Roberts.
CURA’s Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) software solutions enable businesses to better manage risk, while also enabling them to take advantage of opportunities relating to business objectives and goals. CURA provides a powerful, structured, and flexible framework for managing risk, allowing companies to identify, analyse, evaluate and treat both risks and opportunities in order to protect the corporate brand, while creating value for shareholders, owners, employees, customers and regulators.
“Customers are able to use CURA’s ERM solution to embed and integrate risk management into their business processes, as well as communicate risk and risk treatment widely, link risk management directly to decision making, monitor organisational and individual performance against goals and objectives, and create a risk-aware culture through enforcement and accountability.
“In today’s tough economic climate, it pays to be as prepared as possible for potential risks and to consider what you would do in certain worst-case scenarios, such as losing a major customer. At the same time, it is just as critical to understand potential opportunities that could arise, such as being able to provide goods or services to the clients of a competitor that has gone out of business. Ultimately, effective risk management is the most efficient way to deal with both risk and opportunity issues in a swift and decisive manner, and CURA’s ERM solutions are designed to assist you answer the key ‘what if?’ questions related to both these areas.” Roberts says.
