It wasn’t so difficult to sell and buy until the recent past, let’s say until twenty years ago.  But since, financial resources have become less and less available and the future doesn’t seem to bode for the better.

Enterprises have to keep living to give to their employees the money they need to survive.

So, where will this money come from?

PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE
In the years 20’s and later on, we focused on planned obsolescence.  We now yearly introduce new products that are advertised as “new” smartphones, cars, laptop computers, digital cameras, and so on.

What I find really new are e-books readers, that save a lot of space, of weight … and money, too.

The worst example is the world of fashion, especially for female garments and accessories, in which Italy is probably the number one perpetrator on the planet and France is number two.

In the risk management business we cannot, we must not ignore these issues.  They will  soon become a tsunami, an avalanche if we don’t get ready to fight them.

LACK OF MONEY AND INCOME
The real and most dominating risks we all face are financial.  People have less and less money to spend.

In Italy, banks have been instructed by the central Italian bank to grant loans to build houses, to keep the economy afloat.  Recent data say that 82 percent investments to build houses are based on bank loans.

It’s a worrying figure.  Why?  The actual house owner is the bank.  If the payer loses his job, which may happen unexpectedly under the present economic conditions, he loses the house, too.  It’s a  huge issue for italy and a number of European countries.

Italy’s prime minister Renzi recently met USA’s president Obama and came back declared that Italy is not an impoverished country.  It’s not a question of believing him or not, the question being that Italy has a 70 million inhabitants population and is critical for NATO’s strategies.

The recent moves of Scotland, Wales, and Catalonia for financial independence from central governments should not be ignored.  In northern Italy we have wanted to get away from Rome for twenty years or so.  It’s all about money – who has it and who wants it.

These signs are risks in themselves.  These national and even international financial issues are  the main inputs to risk assessment.  In such a financially driven world, quality excellence is a long lost dream.  Most people have not enough money to pay for it.

SO BACK TO QUALITY
I’m aware that financially assessing the risks of any company or organization is no easy job, especially when our assessment report has to provide the auditee with CAPA’s.

But we have to give to our readers and customers the inputs they need, they deserve it.

It would be an odd expression to speak of money as of value-added pricing or paying but it’s so.

Money is – either we accept it or not – the most immediate (I don’t mean the easiest) way to measure performance.

Let’s start from here, therefore, and see if – and when – we’ll find something better.

We’ve also to take more care to the principle of “demanding organizations”, as their resources are made poorer and poorer.  We must not ignore that since as citizens and tax payers we depend on them and on the (social) services they provide us.

Demanding organizations – especially those providing public-oriented services – seek ever  increasing funding,and are those that really take care of the poor, elderly, less fortunate  and healthy.

It’s a substantial risk that we have to take care of and we can’t do without profit making companies and public service institutions.

SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY
This should be an item number one when assessing any company or organization’s risks: what do you do to be socially accountable?

SA 8000 is a voluntary standard that’s not much either known or divulged, and its requirements will probably be much revised in its 2014 edition.

Despite statistics, western countries suffer from this mis-economy: there’s an ever growing gap between those who can and those who cannot and those who have and those who don’t.

The above issues have to be addressed when assessing risk management systems: though complex as it can be.  Risk assessment cannot – must not – be restricted or parceled to quality, safety, health, environmental risks.

Humanity is far more complex than that, it has to be viewed holistically, as an integrated system.