Risk assessment and mitigation
A reasoned assessment.
A practical plan for action.
We help management identify and assess business risks, examine current controls and translate the remaining exposure into mitigation priorities, responsibilities and actions.
Discuss your risk prioritiesFrom exposure to action
A useful assessment connects the risk, the controls and the proposed response. Each stage should leave a clear record of what is known, what is assumed and what needs to happen.
Start with the objective, activity or commitment at risk. Bring management and functional inputs together to identify the event, its causes, dependencies and potential consequences.
A specific risk statement, with business context and an accountable owner.
Identify the controls, who operates them and the information supporting the assessment. Make gaps in evidence and assumptions about effectiveness visible.
Current controls, responsibilities, supporting evidence and assessment limitations.
Assess exposure before and after considering current controls, using agreed likelihood and impact criteria. Record the rationale, uncertainties and basis for prioritisation.
Inherent and residual assessments, with reasons for the ratings and priorities.
Translate priorities into proposed actions. Clarify responsibilities, dependencies, milestones and target dates so management can consider the resources and approvals required.
A mitigation plan with named owners, milestones and decisions required.
Review progress, overdue actions and changes in the business. Revisit the assessment when new evidence or changed conditions affect the judgement, and surface matters requiring escalation.
An updated position, open actions and the next management decision.
Controls and mitigation
A proposed action belongs in the response plan. Its expected benefit should remain separate from the assessment of controls operating today.
Current controls
Identify the control, its owner and how it is intended to address the risk. Consider available evidence of operation and make any limitation in the assessment explicit.
What supports the judgement that this control is operating as intended?
Planned mitigation
Define the action, its owner and the milestones ahead. Record progress and completion evidence, then consider whether the risk assessment needs to change.
What must be completed and reviewed before a lower exposure can be supported?
Completing an action and demonstrating a change in exposure are separate judgements. Keep both visible in the review.
What the work can include
The register, assessment summary and action plan should tell the same story, with enough detail for the people responsible to act and for leadership to review.
Business risks, current controls, owners and assessment rationale, with inherent and residual exposure made clear.
A concise view of priorities and their basis, supported by heat maps where useful and explicit assumptions where evidence is incomplete.
Proposed actions, accountable owners, milestones, target dates and dependencies, including resources or decisions needed to proceed.
Progress, overdue items, evidence of completion and changes requiring reassessment or management attention.
Accountability in practice
We work with management and functional teams to support the assessment and develop the tools for follow-through.
Considers priorities, approves responses and resources, and decides on matters requiring escalation.
Provide business context and evidence, maintain controls and implement agreed actions.
Supports risk identification and analysis, structures the assessment and helps translate decisions into plans and tracking tools.
Start a conversation
Start with the risks that concern leadership, the controls already in place and the actions that need ownership.
Discuss risk assessment and mitigation