Integrated Risk Management and How It Helps Your Business...
Integrated Risk Management (IRM) entails combining cyber security-based compliance, digital and cyber risk management, and corporate governance into a universal and streamlined approach. This gives businesses the benefit of enterprise-wide visibility into their cyber posture, besides enabling the meaningful automation of their risk management strategies.In the current digital era, businesses have diverse needs. Likewise, they face a wide range of digital risks. In its purest form, IRM mirrors the dynamic needs of today’s businesses. Security managers and the C-suite shouldn’t be satisfied with regular compliance-driven GRC tools. They need tools that can visualize, integrate, and synthesize the various forms of risk data. This is what integrated risk management is all about.
What Should IRM Entail?
When it comes to integrated risk management, the value of a program always increases as more risk activities come into view. IRM allows corporate executives to make matter-of-fact decisions regarding what risks to mitigate and what to transfer or accept. As you implement an IRM program, there are many risk areas that you should consider. You should also keep in mind that there are interdependencies and interconnections among these risk areas, which are:– Identity risk
– Third-party risk
– Business continuity risk
– Corporate compliance risk
– IT risk
Benefits of IRM to Your Business
Broadens Your Range of Opportunities
With an IRM program in place, it will be easier for you to consider both the negative and positive aspects of risks that your business faces. It also helps you to identify unintended consequences that could lead to more significant problems in the future. Knowing the risks that you face across all aspects of your business creates opportunities for alignment, cost savings, and competitive advantages. In doing so, you’ll be adding value to the company over and above risk mitigation.Makes It Easier to Identify and Mitigate Risks
Typically, risks affect all aspects of your business. A risk can emerge from one part of your operations and affect other components of the company. A one-way strategy, such as GRC, (Governance, Risk, Compliance) can’t address such risks effectively. With IRM, it’s easier to identify and mitigate entity-wide risks. This risk management strategy provides an aggregate view of the risks that you face, besides enabling you to quantify them.Eliminates Surprises
Risks often come as a surprise. If you are caught off-guard, your business will undoubtedly suffer. With IRM, you can limit negative surprises while optimizing gains. It allows you to improve your ability to identify both positive and negative risks and establish suitable responses. By eliminating negative risk surprises, you will be able to avoid the resultant financial losses.Integrated risk management provides a foundation for having informed discussions regarding alternatives and unintentional consequences. Indeed, negative risks won’t stop emerging, but if they do, they won’t have an element of surprise. For instance, if you are setting delivery schedules for your manufacturing firm, you should realize that delays in highway traffic can’t be avoided. To avert resultant risks, you can develop alternative routes and protocols for alerting customers about potential delays.
Minimizes Performance Variability
The risks that some businesses face have little or nothing to do with surprises. Instead, these risks emerge from performance variability. Having an integrated risk management strategy makes it easier for you to gauge the performance of all aspects of your business. On the other hand, a single risk management strategy will only help you to measure the performance of one aspect of your business.Improves Resource Deployment
IRM ensures that you have a wealth of information on risks at your fingertips. This way, it’s easier to assess your organization’s overall resource needs, thus optimizing resource allocation. For instance, an in-depth risk assessment of your company’s infrastructure can help you to determine components that are old and need replacing. Greater focus and emphasis on resources such as money, time, and people, makes those resources more efficient. This is what IRM helps you to achieve.How to Implement IRM Successfully
Here’s what you should do to implement integrated risk management successfully:– Align your company’s business outcomes with its cyber strategy
– Facilitate a risk-engaged and risk-aware culture at your organization
– Integrate risk into all business strategy discussions
– Create employee and stakeholder awareness about your IRM strategy
Implementing an integrated risk management strategy is one of the best decisions that you can make. IRM shouldn’t be separate from other management processes and decisions. Instead, it should get embedded in your corporate culture so that it becomes an integral part of your decision-making processes and day-to-day operations.
It’s crucial to keep in mind that when implementing IRM, your organization should consider all relevant implementation platforms so that you use a platform that suits you best. In the current digital age, threats evolve rapidly, thus the need to implement an integrated risk management strategy that can accommodate constant changes. Even if your business isn’t ready for a full-blown IRM upheaval, you can still take small steps towards improving your risk visibility.