Growth Through Risk Control

Growth Series (Part 9)

The Growth series will posted on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays through the month of October 2011.

“Everyone will leave you. It is just a matter of why and when.”

The mentor who drilled that into my head was talking about one of the most basic elements of business – people. Whether you are recruiting, building your company, considering retention options and or looking at your business practice, the statement holds true. We cannot count on any relationship to be forever and would be fools to do so. We can do more than hope, we can build in systems that mitigate the risk by making the company the best and most attractive option. Life circumstances make it impossible to fully eliminate risk.

So how do we reduce the impact of the risk? Assessing and managing risk with an understanding of its impact is an important element of growth planning as it may impact your goals and specific areas of attention.

1. First we need to understand why people or accounts stay with you and probable reasons they will leave and then assign a value. The chart below gives a sample high level view. You may want to break down specific components of items such as your value proposition for a better look. Once you have created the considerations for your company, apply the rating system to individuals or accounts beginning with those that have the most impact to your company.

Please click here to view and download the full-sized table.

2. Once you have evaluated the risk, monetize the impact. How much do you earn and what do you potentially stand to lose.

3. Consider the timing of the risk and cost of impact to prioritize your focus.

4. Determine how many of your average people or business accounts it will take to replace the top two risks in your company.

5. Using the impact evaluation tool, monetized the impact, looked at the timing and have an understanding of replacement cost or effort, you can now structure a plan to mitigate the risk and potentially create growth that outweighs the impact.

Since we know that “Everyone will leave you. It is just a matter of why and when.”, taking a proactive look and implementing a plan can be the best way to control many risks.

Tomorrow, we will look at Career Development options which can be a great tool for growth and risk mitigation.