Robert S. Kaplan

Anette Mikes

Nota de los editores: Desde que este número de HBR entró en imprenta, JP Morgan, cuyas prácticas de gestión del riesgo se destacan en este artículo, reveló importantes pérdidas comerciales en una de sus unidades. Los autores ofrecen sus comentarios sobre este giro de los acontecimientos en <a href="https://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/05/jp_morgans_loss_bigger_than_ri.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">su contribución</a> al Insight Center de HBR sobre la gestión de comportamientos arriesgados.

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Risk management is too often treated as a compliance issue that can be solved by drawing up lots of rules and making sure that all employees follow them. Many such rules, of course, are sensible and do reduce some risks that could severely damage a company. But rules-based risk management will not diminish either the likelihood or the impact of a disaster such as Deepwater Horizon, just as it did not prevent the failure of many financial institutions during the 2007&#8211;2008 credit crisis.
In this article, Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes present a categorization of risk that allows executives to understand the qualitative distinctions between the types of risks that organizations face. Preventable risks, arising from within the organization, are controllable and ought to be eliminated or avoided. Examples are the risks from employees&#8217; and managers&#8217; unauthorized, unethical, or inappropriate actions and the risks from breakdowns in routine operational processes. Strategy risks are those a company voluntarily assumes in order to generate superior returns from its strategy. External risks arise from events outside the company and are beyond its influence or control. Sources of these risks include natural and political disasters and major macroeconomic shifts. Risk events from any category can be fatal to a company&#8217;s strategy and even to its survival.
Companies should tailor their risk management processes to these different risk categories. A rules-based approach is effective for managing preventable risks, whereas strategy risks require a fundamentally different approach based on open and explicit risk discussions. To anticipate and mitigate the impact of major external risks, companies can call on tools such as war-gaming and scenario analysis.

Managing Risks: A New Framework

La gestión de riesgos se trata con demasiada frecuencia como una cuestión de cumplimiento que puede resolverse elaborando montones de normas y asegurándose de que todos los empleados las siguen. Muchas de esas normas, por supuesto, son sensatas y reducen algunos riesgos que podrían dañar gravemente a una empresa. Pero la gestión de riesgos basada en normas no disminuirá ni la probabilidad ni el impacto de una catástrofe como la de Deepwater Horizon, del mismo modo que no evitó la quiebra de muchas instituciones financieras durante la crisis crediticia de 2007-2008.En este artículo, Robert S. Kaplan y Anette Mikes presentan una categorización del riesgo que permite a los ejecutivos comprender las distinciones cualitativas entre los tipos de riesgos a los que se enfrentan las organizaciones. Los riesgos prevenibles, que surgen dentro de la organización, son controlables y deben eliminarse o evitarse. Algunos ejemplos son los riesgos derivados de acciones no autorizadas, poco éticas o inapropiadas de empleados y directivos y los riesgos derivados de fallos en los procesos operativos rutinarios. Los riesgos estratégicos son los que una empresa asume voluntariamente para generar rendimientos superiores a partir de su estrategia. Los riesgos externos surgen de acontecimientos ajenos a la empresa y están fuera de su influencia o control. Entre las fuentes de estos riesgos se encuentran las catástrofes naturales y políticas y los grandes cambios macroeconómicos. Los acontecimientos de riesgo de cualquier categoría pueden ser fatales para la estrategia de una empresa e incluso para su supervivencia.Las empresas deben adaptar sus procesos de gestión de riesgos a estas diferentes categorías de riesgos. Un enfoque basado en reglas es eficaz para gestionar los riesgos evitables, mientras que los riesgos estratégicos requieren un enfoque fundamentalmente diferente basado en debates abiertos y explícitos sobre los riesgos. Para anticipar y mitigar el impacto de los principales riesgos externos, las empresas pueden recurrir a herramientas como los juegos de guerra y el análisis de escenarios.

Gesti&oacute;n de riesgos: Un nuevo marco

Risk management is too often treated as a compliance issue that can be solved by drawing up lots of rules and making sure that all employees follow them. Many such rules, of course, are sensible and do reduce some risks that could severely damage a company. But rules-based risk management will not diminish either the likelihood or the impact of a disaster such as Deepwater Horizon, just as it did not prevent the failure of many financial institutions during the 2007–2008 credit crisis. In this article, Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes present a categorization of risk that allows executives to understand the qualitative distinctions between the types of risks that organizations face. Preventable risks, arising from within the organization, are controllable and ought to be eliminated or avoided. Examples are the risks from employees’ and managers’ unauthorized, unethical, or inappropriate actions and the risks from breakdowns in routine operational processes. Strategy risks are those a company voluntarily assumes in order to generate superior returns from its strategy. External risks arise from events outside the company and are beyond its influence or control. Sources of these risks include natural and political disasters and major macroeconomic shifts. Risk events from any category can be fatal to a company’s strategy and even to its survival. Companies should tailor their risk management processes to these different risk categories. A rules-based approach is effective for managing preventable risks, whereas strategy risks require a fundamentally different approach based on open and explicit risk discussions. To anticipate and mitigate the impact of major external risks, companies can call on tools such as war-gaming and scenario analysis.

Gestión de riesgos: Un nuevo marco

Resumen.

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