If we can say anything for sure about the 2020s, it is that you can't control everything. That's why your focus should be on what you can control and do that both strategically and flexibly, building resilience and improving governance as part of your everyday operations. Transparency and integrity are the keys to evolving processes when you first understand what's your starting point.

We here at Granite have talked at lengths about risk management maturity in our MONTHLY LIVE WEBINARS, and one thing we know for sure: effective risk management improves organisations' ability to respond to the changes and recover from sudden, and not so sudden, changes in the marketplace. That's what the risk management maturity model we've developed is all about: It's a self-assessment tool to help you understand where you are now and what you can do about it.

In short, the five levels are:

1. At the first level organisations have recognised risk management's role in good governance. At this level, however, risk management hasn't really been assigned to anyone.

2. At the second step of the risk management maturity model organisation has started to put words into action. In most cases, the biggest driver for this development is either legislation or partner demands and as such risk management tools are often manually filled spreadsheets.

3. At the third level of the risk management maturity model, risk management has been assigned to named individuals within the organisation and the consequence it can be truly planned and tracked. Unfortunately, though, at this level, risk management is often only carried out periodically.

4. Organisations at the fourth step have implemented risk management as a part of their daily operations. At this level, risk management is supported by a clear evaluation and follow-up process with automated action tracking. 

5. Organisations at the fifth level of the risk management maturity model make use of risk management in their daily operations. At this level, purpose-built tools like Granite Risk Management are necessary, as the risk management solutions work as a support system for the core processes and strategy.

Using good data to manage risk

When it comes to assessing your approach to risk management and good data starts with a series of simple questions: where is it? Whose responsible for it? How can you access it and how do you know it's current?

Depending on your risk management maturity level these questions can sound hard, but in the current business environment organisations are required to pay closer attention to their risks and their risk appetite.

Meaningful analytics can help identify trends, and even predict future needs and developments.

Building protections and resilience

The last two years have brought a lot of changes into how we view not just business operations but also work as a wider concept. Increased dependency on technology has also increased the importance of cyber security.

For previously centralised teams working at close quarters, the "new normal" has introduced communication and information access challenges. If you haven't already, you should be looking into securing not only the integrity of your data or your access to it but how to assess and build protections in your partner network.

Embracing a comprehensive risk management approach

No man is an island and no organisation or industry operates in isolation. Effective risk management in the 2020s requires a more inclusive understanding and analysis of the diverse factors that can impact operations.

Emergent factors can provide both challenges and opportunities and leaders who can grab these initiatives by the reins will be able to secure a more essential role for their organisations.