Risk manager: a new and promising profession

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Any human activity can be associated with danger in one way or another. In a broad sense, risk is the likelihood of a loss or loss. If we are talking about business, then all these negative consequences are financial in nature. It is simply impossible to completely protect yourself from all sides. But adverse factors can be calculated, and, therefore, to minimize the likelihood of a loss. True, for this you need to have certain knowledge and skills in the business field. Moreover, sometimes only flair can help. It was under the influence of all these requirements that an absolutely new and highly demanded speci alty appeared on the labor market - a risk manager. Who is this and how can one become such a specialist is the topic of today's article.

Risks: what they are

Speaking about this rather new sphere of human activity, it is worth noting that the key word here is still “manager”. And only then can we say thatYou can learn how to anticipate risks. If we consider the structure of almost any business, we can distinguish the following types of risks:

Operational. Dangers associated with the imperfection of the company's personnel policy, safety violations, fraud, damage to assets, and so on. In general, everything that can happen in the course of the company's operations falls here.

Financial. The risk that, for one reason or another, an enterprise may not be able to fulfill its financial obligations to partners. These risks include:

• credit;
• market - a decrease in the value of assets for various reasons;
• balance - the risk of balance and liquidity of existing assets.

A competent financial risk manager should be able to correctly assess each of them and calculate ways to minimize them.

Managerial. These risks include:

• loss of goodwill;
• Wrong choice of enterprise development strategy;
• reducing the value of the company in the relevant market.

Other types of risks. In general, there are about a hundred types of different risks that can be classified based on the type of activity of the organization.

Profession Description

There are many risks. The risk manager of an enterprise is precisely engaged in their definition, classification, analysis and control.

This is one of the leading positions in the strategic management of the company. In modernIn reality, Russian businessmen have to regularly deal with many different factors, each of which can unpredictably affect the work of the organization. This is mainly due to a sharp change in the exchange rate and, as a result, commodity prices. Also freely "walk" and interest rates on loans.

As a rule, large enterprises create a whole system for identifying and minimizing risks. In smaller ones, the risk manager is most often the leader himself.

Where is this taught

Training a specialist of this kind is very difficult. That is why you will hardly find such a profession as a risk manager in the list of speci alties of institutes, academies and universities.

A good specialist in this field should have a fairly large amount of knowledge in the following areas:

• jurisprudence;
• mathematical analysis;
• statistics;
• information systems;
• computer technology;
• specifics of the economic activity of the enterprise in which you will work.

Most often, applicants for the position of "risk manager" are business leaders with sufficient work experience. Also, good managers for working with "dangers" are obtained from graduates of technical and mathematical educational institutions with experience in mathematical and statistical analysis.

Practically the only specialized training center in this area today is the Global Association of Risk Professionals(GARP). The specialists of this company provide advanced training programs and centralized training for senior management. GARP has been operating in the Russian market since 1999 and provides certification programs in the field of risk management. This Association has offices in more than 100 countries and trains high-level specialists.

Responsibilities

Work as a risk manager is most often associated with assessing current affairs at the enterprise, finding weaknesses and ways to eliminate them. The activities of such a specialist can be put approximately in the following scheme:

• identifying existing risks;
• assessment of the possibility of an unfavorable development of the situation;
• develop a plan of action to manage the process;
• development of a strategy for the company's activities to reduce the likely negative and minimize losses;
• implementation of the chosen strategy;
• correcting actions if necessary;
• summarizing the work.

Of course, clear job responsibilities depend primarily on which projects the risk manager manages.

What else you need to know

In addition to fairly extensive knowledge in mathematics, economics, statistics and other areas of activity, a risk specialist will also need the following skills:

• at least 2 years experience in analytics;
• ability to work with a computer at the level of an advanced user;
• knowledge of English, andboth oral and written;
• knowledge of accounting and Russian legislation in the chosen field;
• knowledge of financial reporting systems;
• willingness to almost constantly work under stress;
• the ability to prove one's point of view and defend it if necessary.

Prospects

Due to the relatively recent emergence of the “project risk manager” profession, there is no big boom in the labor market. Nevertheless, there is always a demand for good specialists in this field. And every year it only grows. Such specialists are especially in demand in companies planning to become attractive to foreign investors. To date, these are mainly large banks, leasing companies and other enterprises in the financial sector. But every year the list of enterprises only increases.

Pay level

Since most applicants for such a position are recent graduates of higher educational institutions, the salary level for them is not too high, about 2 thousand dollars. But after a few years, as experience and practical knowledge are gained, earnings increase by about 2.5 times.

Larger companies of risk managers with experience are priced slightly more expensive. Here, wages start from 10 thousand US dollars, and the upper bar is practically absent. An experienced risk manager who occupies a top position in a firm can value his services at $60,000–80,000 or even higher.

Peoplechoosing such a profession, they must not only have a lot of different knowledge, but also have a certain type of character. A good professional is characterized by meticulousness, attention to detail, the ability to keep a huge amount of information in sight, the ability to work for a long time under constant stress.

How much such a specialist is needed

The position of a risk manager, focused on the break-even of an existing business, as a rule, is introduced by already established, mature companies. The introduction of such a specialist into the staff is possible and justified in the case when the enterprise already has a certain model of business processes. Otherwise, it is very difficult to distribute powers and impute responsibility for doing business. Most often, at enterprises that do not have such a specialist, risk management is still carried out. In this case, the functions of the risk manager are delegated to other departments:

• legal department;
• security service;
• internal control unit;
• financial department;
• information security service;
• to other specialists.

In conclusion, I would like to say that business today is increasingly using a variety of information technologies, and, as you know, they are developing rapidly. Therefore, there is no guarantee that the experience of today's risk management professionals will be of any value in a few years. So the success of this profession, of course, depends on the level of developmentand self-education of applicants.