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 Once they find a potential weakness—maybe their data protection software is out of date, or maybe they have a subsidiary in the middle of a potentially bankrupting lawsuit—they can devise strategies to address those risks.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 is risk premium?0 Views
Finance Allah shmoop What is risk premium No it's not
This movie in three D risk premium comes from the
notion that when you invest in pretty much anything other
than US government debt there is more risk in that
other investment like even by the bonds of Disney or
Coke or GOOG or some other behemoth company of those
bonds carry more risk than US government paper And if
you bought the stocks I even equities not the bonds
of one of those beam off cos Well there's way
more risk Well historically stocks have swung up and down
violently in short periods over time but over long periods
of time they've gone up Ah lot Well regardless where
there is more perceived risk investors will demand more potential
reward Yeah the key idea here every investment carries more
risk than US government paper So on top of whatever
U S Government bonds air yielding investors tag on top
of them a premium investment return that they require to
be interested in investing So if say a five year
U S Government bond is yielding three percent and you're
looking at investing in bonds backed by a controversial low
warlord Somalian company Well there's at least some tangible risk
of bankruptcy there right Well then those bonds will carry
meaningful E a higher yield than the US government five
year paper If the risk that the company doesn't pay
back its bond is modest well then maybe that premiums
only one percent on top and those five year bonds
yield in a four percent If the risk is big
they might have to yield eight or ten or fourteen
percent or more But those were extremely high rates at
least these days The market's telling you that the company
and backing the money already has one foot in the
grave So now let's go to a completely different way
of thinking about this extra risk your local diner Think
of our risk free five year U S Government bonds
of yielding three percent and being priced like a dinner
salad which is the cheapest item on the menu right
here So everything else will cost more than that salad
crew tones included So then when you're ordering if you
wanted a burger it's total gross Cost is seven bucks
But you could also describe that cost to the angry
waitress or friendly robot as dinner salad plus four bucks
The premium tacked onto the salad price is four dollars
for the burger Well risk is priced and described the
same way there has to be added investment return to
reflect the added risk to the investor on any given
deal Be careful though There's inherent risk even if all
you do is order to the salad Especially if there's
been a romaine lettuce E Coli warning recently issued by
the CDC And you do not want to go there 00:02:32.288 --> [endTime] My God
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