Risks? Standards can turn these into opportunities!
13/9/2023
Whatever sector your organisation operates in, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the risks your business is facing. Whether it’s a new competitor, changing customer preferences, supplier dependency, sharply rising energy prices, or another challenge. Every organisation has to deal with risks sooner or later. “But there’s also good news,” says Ellen Bartholomeeusen, Operations Manager at NBN. “It may sound paradoxical, but where there are risks, there are also opportunities. And standards help you take advantage of them.”
“We need to move away from the idea that risks are always negative and therefore avoidable,” Ellen continues. “On the contrary, forward-looking organisations are not necessarily trying to eliminate or reduce them, but rather to manage them. The idea is to take just enough risk - no more and no less - to effectively pursue your strategic goals. That’s why risk assessment is so important.”
“Every organisation manages risk - consciously or unconsciously - but rarely does so systematically. NBN EN IEC 31010 and NBN ISO 31000 let you change that.”
Ellen Bartholomeeusen
NBN
Purchase NBN ISO 31000:2018, Risk management - Guidelines and NBN EN IEC 31010:2019, Risk management - Risk assessment techniques now in our online shop.
To support organisations in assessing risk, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have been joining forces for over a decade. They jointly developed ISO/IEC 31010, a standard that brings together international best practices in this area and is available through NBN as NBN EN IEC 31010. “The standard includes a series of useful techniques to better identify and understand risks in numerous situations,” Ellen explains. “This way, you create an evaluation process that is practical, sustainable, and easily understood. The ultimate goal: to make better decisions.”
Ellen goes on to explain, “NBN EN IEC 31010 is a valuable complement to NBN ISO 31000, the international standard for risk management. That standard focuses mainly on how to turn the identified risks into opportunities for achieving your objectives. What’s more, they can both be applied by any organisation, regardless of type, sector, or size.”
