If we see sweetbread on a restaurant menu and order it without doing any research, thinking we just ordered some kind of yummy dessert item, we’re going to be in for a big shock when someone plops a plate of lamb pancreas down in front of us.
“Sweetbread” is one of those words that just doesn’t mean what it sounds like it should mean. But that’s not the case with the term “risk control,” which is exactly what it sounds like. “Risk control” is the method an organization uses to control its risk. Mind = blown, right?
Now...what risk control specifically looks like is going to vary from one company to the next, so let’s just talk about what they all tend to have in common. Companies usually try to figure out where they’re vulnerable by conducting risk assessments. Once they find a potential weakness—maybe their data protection software is out of date, or maybe they have a subsidiary in the middle of a potentially bankrupting lawsuit—they can devise strategies to address those risks. For the most part, a company’s risk control measures are going to do three things: 1) analyze the likelihood and potential impact of the risk, 2) put processes in place to either prevent the risk or reduce its effects, and 3) conduct in-depth analyses of risks that do materialize, so they can figure out how and why they happened.
What might those processes look like? They might look like more stringent accounting principles, or increased safety training requirements. They might look like a diversification of resources and assets, so that one risk event doesn’t take the company under. They might involve hiring an in-house legal staff, copyrighting and patenting proprietary information, or setting up backup servers for our backup servers. If we own a restaurant, they might even involve putting a disclaimer on our menu so we don’t get sued the next time someone orders sweetbread expecting chocolate cake.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What are Systematic and Unsyste...14 Views
finance a la shmoop what are systemic and unsystematic risk systemic risks are
just endemic to the market want to invest in the stock market and compound [Plate of vegetable appear]
return your way into great wealth great but then you'll suffer the normal risk
of the system that risk specifically is this yeah best of times worst of times
but up over time the market goes up you just have to embrace the notion that [Man hugging a tree]
there is systemic risk in that in the short run you can buy an S&P 500 index
fund here then lose like a third or whatever of your money in not too many
years but if you don't panic and sell just at the wrong time here right out
the storm and keep going well then you should be just fine by the time you
arrive here so that's risk that is always in the system equities rise and [Equity in the ocean]
fall like the tides or something like that but generally they rise and if you
want to swim in this bathtub well you get used to the turbulence and have an [Girl swimming against the tide]
airsick bag handy all right that systemic risk or systemic risk
what's unsystematic risk well it's bad investors or rather bad investing it's
panicking and selling your stock just when you should be doubling down its
buying lousy companies thinking that they're cheap today but not realizing [Woman runs away from smelly girl]
that they will always be cheap because they're lousy or in a lousy industry or
run by lousy management it's buying into lousy industries that also look cheap
but are dying hello paper and pulp is yeah anyone really think that's gonna be [Paper printing]
around in 20 years all right well it's believing the dreamy hopes and prayers
of future earnings and trusting that there really will be 5 million [Traffic on the highway]
driverless cars on the road in 3 years you know good luck with that we'd love
it to be true but ain't gonna be unsystematic risk is also investing in
bonds for the long-term taking very little risk when taking little risk is
the opposite of what you should be doing when you're a young investor so yeah
systematic and unsystematic risk both exist plentifully and both can bite you [Dog bites portfolio from woman]
right in the portfolio so you got to know what both are and embrace them
for what they're worth
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