Are you a Board member or Risk Manager or someone interested in good governance? This is to introduce you to Summit Risk, enterprise-wide risk management software that automates the risk management processes. The software has unique features that helps improve governance and compliance across the board. Summit Risk software helps streamline your enterprise risk management processes by empowering all staff to proactively identify, assess and manage risks on a continuous basis as part of their day-to-day operations. It helps overcome the challenges of having a printed risk register that is often outdated as it is not easy to up-date offline.…
Is your Board a window dressing?
In Uganda, we have a situation whereby people put in systems for the sake of it. To the outsiders, you think the system is working when actually it is not functional. As they say, the fish starts rotting from the head, when it comes to governance; it also starts rotting from the head. If the quality of the Board is not good, the organization will not succeed. Signs of window dressing Boards We have had situations whereby for a given business to access certain services, it has to project an image of being well governed. An image of good governance…
How to ensure Board member independence
For the Board to be effective, it needs to be independent from undue influence from many interested parties. These might be the staff, owners or even the shareholders. Before the Board is independent, it has to be independently appointed. We have had a challenge where the person who appoints the Board influences it in that he wants decisions to be taken in his favor. Things he does not want should be untaken by the company. We have seen influence peddling in government institutions. For example, if you look at National Social Security Fund (NSSF), the NSSF Act Cap 222 Laws…
Why you need risk management
A risk is uncertain event that has potential to cause harm or being an opportunity to the business. Management means to plan, control and make decisions. Why risk management? Risk management is to ensure that you anticipate potential events that could cause profits or a loss to the business, and to prevent unexpected bad events that could threaten success. The whole objective is to ensure that the business is a going concern. You don’t want to come to work and find the company has been closed because it has a lot of accumulated debts. It has not been paying staff…
The three key Committees of the Board
Good governance entails having a board that is informed and understand the business well. When it comes to Board composition, having members with diverse skills and experiences is key. A board of a hospital for example, should not just have only medical doctors as Board Members. That would be myopic, as their thinking may not give a clear bird’s view of the entire business operations. Having members who are lawyers, accountants, engineers, could make a big difference. Now that you have a Board of directors, do you need Board committees? You may or not, as explained below. The role of…
What is Risk Management?
To understand risk management, one needs to understand the terms; risk and management. Risk is any event that is uncertain whose occurrence has potential to cause a loss or a gain to the business. Traditionally we have confused the word risk to mean causing a loss in which case many organizations have failed to plan and prepare how to handle an opportunity which arises when it has not been expected. But because business is more concerned with the threat of failing than the threat of abrupt success, we concern ourselves more with risk management in the context of managing bad…
