Risk assessment is required for just about all business plans or decisions. As a responsible manager, you need to consider threats to your organization’s resilience. But to determine probability and impact — and reduce your risk — can be a daunting task. Guided by Douglas M. Henderson’s The Manager’s Guide to Risk Assessment: Getting It Right, you will confidently follow a clearly explained, step-by-step process to conduct a risk assessment.

As you embark on the risk assessment process, you could not find a better and more uniquely qualified guide than Douglas M. Henderson. His 20+ years of experience with major consulting firms includes certification as a professional actuary and business continuity planner. His actuarial knowledge makes him an expert in applying mathematical and statistical methods to help organizations to assess and manage risks. He has applied this real-world knowledge of risk to helping businesses prepare for emergencies and business interruptions of all types.

Henderson offers samples and checklists, including case studies using a fictional company in which he conducts a complete qualitative risk assessment and then a complete quantitative risk assessment, then arrives at a set of comparable actions. His explanations and sample problems will help you to:

Define risk management terms, such as threat, event, and risk control. Identify threats and determine the worst-case situation your organization could face. Collect information on probability for natural and non-natural threats. Understand the difference between qualitative and quantitative risk assessment. Describe probability and impact levels. Identify exposures and examine specific risk controls. Estimate a financial value for implementing a risk control. Determine when outside professional help is needed.

As an added bonus, Henderson explores the topic of risk controls with you, helping you to evaluate what risk controls will best reduce the probability of disruptive events and reduce their impact should they occur. To insure the best investment of time and money, you will perform a cost-benefit analysis for each possible risk control to make the best choice for your organization.

Douglas M. Henderson FSA