The Best Practice Network Guidelines | The Best Practice Network

• Best Practice » Risk Management » Risk Management Standards » ISO 31000:2009 Risk Management – Principles and Guidelines » ISO 31000:2009 Risk Management – Principles and Guidelines

The International Organization for Standardization, ISO, released an International Standard in 2009 to help organizations handle risks in a way that minimizes losses and wasted time. The new ISO 31000 is a collection of principles that offer a framework and process to manage all kinds of risks in a systematic and effective way within a scope or context.

Risks are one of the problems which can happen due to internal or external factors. They can easily hinder the production of products and services, thus affecting a company’s labor, profits and resources. As a result, the organization isn’t able to achieve its aims on time, and slowly sinks down the ladder of success.

According to an ISO representative, one of the major reasons behind the recession suffered globally is directors and managers’ inability to manage risks in a more effective manner. Thus, the ISO has taken this step to help them enhance their businesses and give their economies a much needed boost to survive these hard times.

Once companies start implementing the new ISO 31000, they will be able to:

• Achieve their aims more effectively and quickly
• Implement and promote proactive management
• Understand the need to discover opportunities and threats easily
• Comply with legal requirements and international standards
• Enhance their financial reporting process
• Boost their governance system
• Add to their stakeholders’ confidence and trust
• Build a sturdy basis for decisions and planning
• Get more control over their companies
• Allocate and use resources efficiently during risk treatment
• Add to operational effectiveness and efficiency
• Organize and boost health and safety promotion, and environmental protection
• Ensure loss prevention and implement incident management
• Decrease the impact of losses
• Enhance companies’ learning and resilience

The ISO 31000 is a standard that is easily applicable to public, private or community enterprise, association, group or individual. Along with this standard, the ISO Guide 73 will be adopted by the company. To make sure of what companies need, a visit to the ISO’s official website is definitely a good idea.

Further reading: Corporate Governance | Audit | Performance Improvement