 The Institute of Risk Management South Africa (IRMSA) says that its annual Risk Report, due to be launched in February 2021, will be one of its most important yet.
Published annually, IRMSA’s Risk Report is widely seen as the definitive examination of the risks faced by South Africa and the organisations that operate within its borders. Christelle Marais, Vice President of IRMSA and the Chair of the Risk Intelligence Committee, says that the 2021 report will focus on lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis for the risk management discipline. “Most organisations had a pervasive risks such as a pandemic on their risk registers, but few, if any, anticipated the real extent of the risk it actually posed,” she explains. “Because the world is so interconnected, the real issue is not the pandemic risk as such, but rather similar risks that could materialise in an equally far-reaching manner. Our risk report strives to answer the question: What do we as a country and as individual organisations need to be doing to deal with systemic risks of this scale?” Last year, IRMSA introduced some major methodological changes to its report, designed to make it more useful to risk decision-makers outside of the risk management discipline and to address the concerns of CFOs and COOs more directly. This approach will be continued this year, with the JSE assisting IRMSA to connect with decision-makers in the private sector; a wide range of public-sector decision-makers will also be included. “Our aim is to ensure that this report will help organisations not only understand the risks they face, but also to see their risks within the context of the sector in which they operate and the national and global socio-economic contexts, as well,” Ms Marais says. The 2021 report will be divided into five sections that take readers on a journey. Section 1 will incorporate insights from top South African leaders in the private and public sectors, small-medium enterprises and non-profits. Section 2 will examine the scenarios that South Africa is facing, and will provide a discussion about systemic thinking and risk appetite. Section 3 will then examine each of the identified risks in detail. While some of these risks will naturally have been carried over from last year, new ones will also feature—for example, the risk that COVID-19 has changed consumer behaviour for good. In the final two sections, the report will identify the competencies that South Africa as a country as well as South African organisations will need to succeed. Qualitative input will be sourced from C-Suite leaders via a survey, and highly specialised qualitative analysis will be used to generate useful insights. The report will culminate in a call to action for all to collaborate as we build a risk resilient country. “Each time a risk materialises, we learn more about what risks means in a world that’s increasingly complex,” Ms Marais concludes. “The IRMSA Risk Report is required reading in a world that is increasingly uncertain and in which the effects of risk are increasingly difficult to predict.” ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari, 060 995 6277, [email protected], www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on IRMSA please visit: Website: https://www.irmsa.org.za/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/IRMSAInsight Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IRMSAInsight/?ref=hl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/irmsa-institute-of-risk-management-sa/
0 Comments
 Authored by: Nishkar Ballasur, IRMSA Risk Chat Contributor
Over the recent period, there has been much conversation about the 4th Industrial revolution and its impact on industries and the resources that work within. This conversation continues and has intensified given the COVID-19 pandemic impact on the world which has thrust organisations into not just speaking about working in the digital age but rather enabling people, processes and systems to now continue operations with a strong digital presence. These conversations, in most cases, were supplemented with multiple pleas made to employees to ensure that they embrace this new revolution by enhancing their knowledge and skills. This is probably and arguably one of the most recently and frequently mentioned encouragement notes made from line management to direct reports. A key observation to note though is whether the employee knows what he/she needs to do to upskill themselves to remain relevant? The current risk practitioner faces the same challenges in that they have been informed and are aware that they need to re-armour themselves to operate within the new challenging environment however is there what I refer to as a “bridge”? Is there a learning map, guide, curriculum or similar that the risk practitioner can follow to help transform him/her into the digital risk manager? A simple analogy to serve as reference is requesting a new employee to begin a new piece of work without providing him/her with the guidance or tools to do so, it is simply not enough to just inform, enablers must exist for effective development and execution. Many opinions exist on what knowledge and skills the risk manager of the future is required to obtain, in this article I refer to this role as the digital risk manager, however there could be various title interpretations across organisations. Simply positioned, this refers to the risk manager of the future. In my opinion, this role is not similar to the IT Risk and Information Security Risk practitioner roles as these roles are normally more technical in nature; the digital risk manager role is intended to obtain sufficient and relevant competencies to understand and operate within the technology domain by bridging the gap between business and technical acumen and allowing them the opportunity to branch full time into a more technology risk role should their career path dictate. Following below, I have expressed my opinion of what I believe are the top 10 competencies required for the digital risk manager/risk manager of the future. I further recommend that specific courses within these competencies be sought after. Competency levels can range from basic, intermediary to advanced, it is up to you as to how far you wish to develop your knowledge and skill level. Top 10 Competencies Required for the Digital Risk Manager Competency 1 – IT 101 Obtain an understanding of information technology concepts such as hardware, software, databases, operating systems, applications, networking and similar. Competency 2 – Data Analytics/Big Data Obtain an understanding of data, information, insights, analysis and reporting tools, data interrogation and similar. Competency 3 – Phyton Programming In my opinion, it is not essential that a digital risk manager be able to perform programming however it is extremely useful for (i) providing logical and structured thinking skills and (ii) creating excitement and enjoyment when viewing how a program is created from infancy to product level. Competency 4 – MS Office 365 Understanding the MS Office 365 toolset allows the digital risk manager to suggest solutions to business problems and allows for efficiencies to be created within current processes. Competency 5 – Robotics Obtaining an understanding of the robotic process automation process and the various tools that exist to develop robots (automation of processes). The digital risk manager does not need to know how to develop a robot using a particular software tool however if the interest exists, it’s a very useful aid in his/her armoury. Competency 6 – Cyber Obtaining an understanding of the cyber space along with touchpoints to the other risk types. Competency 7 – Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies Obtaining an understanding of the definitions thereof and the potential threats to and opportunities for business. Competency 8 – Agile/Innovation/Invention Obtaining an understanding as this will enable risk practioniers to look inwards to determine where this can be applied to optimise risk processes and delivery to our customers (internal and external). This helps promote innovative thinking on process and product improvements. Competency 9 – FinTech/RegTech Obtaining an understanding of the concepts and industries impacted including risk and opportunity. Competency 10 – Soft Skills Although being the last item listed, certainly not the least important, soft skills are critical especially during an age of robots where we do not wish for humans to behave in the same way as robots do thus making this the major differentiator in the modern world. In addition to my suggested top 10 competencies, a reminder to take reference from the World Economic Forum (WEF) and its’ top list of skills required for the fourth industrial revolution, these being:
Still, we need to begin the journey and cross the bridge but must also remember that there is no destination, the bridge will continue to expand as our destination changes with time. The major principle remains, a bridge must exist to help move us to the changing landscape! ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari, 060 995 6277, [email protected], www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on IRMSA please visit: Website: https://www.irmsa.org.za/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/IRMSAInsight Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IRMSAInsight/?ref=hl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/irmsa-institute-of-risk-management-sa/ |
Welcome to the IRMSA Newsroom
Archives
December 2020
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed