Regulatory knowledge

Risk managers also need to be able to solve problems. While some risks might require passing the issue on to someone above a risk manager’s pay grade, others often will be left to the risk manager to solve. As a result, they need to like getting their hands dirty from a problem-solving standpoint.

Risk management requires constant education and keeping up with relevant news, trends and issues. Not so long ago, no one had heard of ransomware. Now, it’s one of the greatest cybersecurity threats that companies face. News sites and industry journals should be regular reading material for risk managers.

To identify and estimate risks to a company, risk managers need to understand how the business works. They can’t say finance doesn’t matter because they’re in IT, or vice versa. Business understanding is a must — especially if the risk manager aspires to join the C-suite in the future.

After assembling a list of potential business risks, risk managers need to be able to do a risk assessment and then rank the likelihood and severity of each risk. They should create and regularly update a list that notes the most likely to least likely risks, as well as the most severe to least severe ones. This…

No sports team ever wins by only playing defense — and that applies here, too. If risk managers look at how things affect the business as a whole, they might come up with a better way for their organization to operate. Part of a risk manager’s job is to see the big picture — and…

Risk managers need to know the potential cost of network outages and security breaches, as well as the likely financial impact of other business risks. Ultimately, financial risk will get everyone’s attention in the C-suite and individual departments. The costs of lost productivity, lost income and financial penalties can be crippling to a business if…