2025 Guide to Risk Control: 6 Key Questions to Ask
Risk management doesn’t have to be complex. By focusing on your goals, identifying potential risks, and planning your responses, you can turn risk management into a simple, practical tool for success. This approach applies whether it’s a personal dilemma, a project process, or an organizational decision.
At Ndakala Advisory LLP, the corporate finance team has simplified risk management by breaking it down into six basic questions:
1. What are you trying to do?
This question begins the process of objective setting, helping you define the scope, context, and environment in which you are managing risk.
Clearly articulating your goals provides a solid foundation for the entire risk assessment process, ensuring that every subsequent step aligns with your intended outcomes. Without this clarity, risk management becomes aimless, as it lacks the direction that well-defined objectives provide.
2. What might affect you?
Risk identification starts here. This is the stage where you explore potential uncertainties—events or conditions that could either hinder or support your progress toward your goals.
Identifying these possibilities helps you gain insight into future events that might impact your outcomes, both positively and negatively. It’s essential to broaden your view during this phase, considering not just obvious threats but also opportunities that could arise unexpectedly.
3. Which of those identified uncertainties are most important?
At this point, you enter the risk assessment phase. Here, you prioritize the identified risks based on two key dimensions: their likelihood of occurring and their potential impact.
By evaluating risks through this lens, you focus on the risks that truly matter—those that, if left unchecked, could significantly affect your project or objectives.
For example, while a low-probability risk may seem less urgent, a high-impact risk could warrant immediate attention even if it’s unlikely to occur.
4. What should be done about it?
Once key risks are identified and prioritized, the next step is to develop appropriate responses. For negative risks (threats), responses might include avoidance, reduction, or mitigation strategies. For positive risks (opportunities), the response could be to exploit, enhance, or capitalize on them.
The goal is to take proactive action, so you’re not merely reacting to uncertainties but shaping the outcome in a controlled, strategic way.
For example, if a supply chain disruption is a key threat, you might decide to diversify suppliers to reduce dependency on a single source.
5. Did it work?
It’s crucial to evaluate the effectiveness of your risk responses. This step ensures that the strategies you implemented are having the desired impact. If the results aren’t as expected, you can adjust and refine your approach.
This step promotes continuous improvement and keeps your strategy aligned with changing conditions. For instance, if a mitigation strategy for a specific risk proves ineffective, revisiting the response plan allows you to correct course before the risk escalates.
6. What changed?
Lastly, since environments—whether in projects, businesses, or life—are constantly evolving, it’s essential to monitor for new risks or shifts in existing ones.
Regularly revisiting this question ensures that your risk management process remains dynamic and responsive to changing circumstances. New information, emerging trends, or unexpected developments can introduce new risks, so maintaining an adaptive mindset is critical for long-term success.
Risk management doesn’t have to be complex. By focusing on your goals, the risks you may face, and how you’ll respond, you can turn risk management into a simple, practical tool for success.