Specialist risk advisory
Risk is better than you think.
Without risk there is no opportunity. Without opportunity, no impact
In the boardroom or on the shopfloor, humans are poor at assessing and managing risk. Take our marine friend above. Lots of people worry about meeting her every time they get in the ocean, yet the chances of a nibble are almost negligible. You’re much more likely to be hospitalised by a shopping trolley, garden gnome or collapsible chair.
That’s not to say there is no risk. Sharks are a great example of ‘low probability, high impact’ risks – one of the main kinds of risks humans struggle with. AI isn’t the whole answer either. It can create basic materials, but it won’t have all the nuanced data like humans do.
Oli May has worked on risk across the humanitarian and international development, domestic non-profit, government and private sector spaces for 21 years. He is well recognised as a leading voice on effective risk management for purpose-led organisations.
Koala distils Oli’s approach into six things we champion: Being locally-led, holistic, human-centric, pragmatic, iterative and building capacity as we go.
Our take on risk: what we champion
Locally-led approach
Unless risk and controls are locally developed, they will probably fail. Locally-led risk management is not an aspiration, it’s the key to the future.
Capacity building
Risk management is inherently challenging for humans and it has been taken over by technicians. For real-life risk management to succeed, it needs to be broken out into understandable, applicable everyday practice.
Holistic
There are no silver bullets. Good risk management means measures to prevent, detect and respond to risks, and a range of components in your framework.
Pragmatism
We focus on what works. Practices work best when they build on or adapt what’s already there, integrate, keep it simple and properly tailor the approach. Don’t overengineer, don’t reinvent the wheel, drop the jargon.
Human-centric
You can have as many tools and matrices as you like, the reality is that risk is about people. We focus on that, leveraging behavioural science and human factors.
Iteration
We love collaboration. ‘Flying the plane while we build it’ is a terrible idea – but that doesn’t mean we can’t work iteratively, test and co-create. Each iteration just needs to hit its own objectives.
Examples of services
- Enterprise risk management
- Project, program process or functional risk management
- Risk training and people development
- Board and C-suite advisory
- Partners, suppliers and other third parties
- Related party risk
- People risk
- Donor risk management
- Fundraising risk
- Humanitarian protection
- Technology, data and privacy
- Safeguarding – child protection, prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment
- Fraud and corruption
- Environmental and Social Safeguards (ESS)
- Financial crime, AML/CTF and counterterrorism
