Risk Management

How a Smarter Risk Management Process Improves Business

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Improving your risk management process means safer products. In many cases, it can also give your overall business a boost that impacts efficiency, collaboration, and innovation, according to a new report by prominent professional services firm PwC.

For the recently-released 2019 Risk in Review Study, PwC surveyed roughly 2,100 business leaders across 27 industries in almost 100 countries. One of the big takeaways was that companies PwC defines as “digitally-fit” include risk functions in their digital transformation process, and generally see greater benefits, including improved risk management, customer experience, and revenue growth.

Along with having the skills and competency to advise stakeholders on risk, PwC defines risk functions that are digitally fit at an organization as those that are modernizing the processes, tools, and services to enable them to be more data-driven and proactive in anticipating and responding to risk.

“When the digital fitness of the risk function stays in lockstep with the organization’s digital transformation, the benefits the organization receives as it digitally transforms multiply,” PwC says within the report.

Read Frost & Sullivan’s take on how Jama Connect® helps businesses thrive in safety-critical product markets here.

So, if your company is charging full steam on digitally transforming its processes, but still leaving your risk management team to work with spreadsheets and other manual methods, there are big opportunities being missed.

The report also identified six habits of higher-performing, digitally-fit risk teams worth calling out:

Leaning into the Organization’s Overall Digital Plan

As noted, it’s crucial to involve risk management teams in the overall digital transformation process. “If you shift left with your cyber, audit, and compliance functions fully integrated, upfront, you’re going to be in a better place,” Bhavani Amirthalingam, chief digital information officer at Ameren, told PwC. “If involving risk management and cyber teams gives you speed, then [company leaders] are going to engage with them much more strategically.”

Upskilling and Hiring New Talent to Move at the Speed of the Organization

The functions around risk are changing, and companies need to ensure those performing the work can keep pace. That might mean additional training or hiring fresh faces, but skills like critical thinking, understanding new technologies and data, ability to collaborate, and manage change are all needed.

Finding the Right Fit for Emerging Tech

As technology advances, it’s producing new ways of working and companies need to examine what’s the best way to integrate those solutions into their overall risk management plan. For example, according to PwC, high-performing players in this area are using new technologies on governance, risk, and compliance to coordinate risk tracking, reporting, assessment, and testing.

Empowering the Organization to Act on Risks in Real Time

Those performing functions like risk analysis and risk mitigation have to be more proactive and equipped with data to assist with supporting organizational decisions. A risk assessment that relies on data that is both accessible and trustworthy is better equipped to consider risk likelihood, impact, and velocity and provide a more meaningful set of priorities in response, according to PwC.

Engaging Key Stakeholders

Getting a company’s main decision makers involved in risk functions isn’t always easy, but it’s important for your organization’s overall health. Therefore, finding a way to add continuous engagement and communication around risk only strengthens your organization’s culture of quality.

Before developing new medical devices in Jama Connect, read our guide to ISO 14971.

Collaborating and Aligning

Finding more ways to work with cross-functional teams and keep them in the loop about risk can also be considered another best practice. And one of the best ways to do that, according to PwC, is to work from a single source of truth. “By working from one source of data on a common platform with a common tech stack, risk functions can bring leaders a consolidated view of risk, which boards, CEOs, and other stakeholders crave for more informed and agile decision making.

For companies trying to move faster than ever, ensuring your risk team has not only a seat at the table but is also equipped with market-leading best solutions to stay competitive and keep your organization digitally fit is the best path forward.

Learn how managing risk in Jama Connect® can help improve your risk management process. By having both risks and requirements in Jama Connect, teams can track data and make decisions more collaboratively, leading to higher-quality products, regardless of industry or level of regulation.

Learn why consulting agency Frost & Sullivan likes Jama Connect for improving your risk management process by checking out their new brief.

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