Entrepreneurs Must Have Risk Awareness In Business Dealings, Says Risk Management Speaker

KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 (Bernama) -- Entrepreneurs should have risk awareness in their business undertakings and deploy right strategies to deal with risks, says a public speaker on risk management.

Source from (Bernama): http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v7/bu/newsbusiness.php?id=966702
Published: July 31, 2013

Dr Shamsul Anuar Mohd Halip, Vice-President of International Institute of Risk Management and Crisis Strategies, said risks can be negative or positive in nature depending on its impact to businesses.

"It is negative when its impacts drive to a failure of a business and become positive if you are able to face it and see opportunities and translate it into yields," he told Bernama.

Shamsul Annuar said entrepreneurs, especially in the small and medium enterprise sector, must equip themselves with knowledge and skills in their business venture so that risks can be identified correctly and be able to formulate plans and strategies to face them.

"Besides knowledge and skills, perseverance and luck are other keys to gain success. It helps you to bounce back even if you fail," he said.

Among risks facing SMEs are financial, knowledge and people, he said.

"Business starts with ideas and it will be translated into plans and then financial sourcing and capital comes into the picture when you are moving the ideas.

"Without knowledge and skills and the right people networking the business shall face a lot of problems to put ideas into motion as they might be presented with ideas and opportunities that are not viable for business and require a lot of money beyond their means.

"Entrepreneurs can be trapped with greed when presented with a lot of money and opportunities by people whom they meet and tempt to venture into areas that they do not have knowledge and skills.

"These may post negative risks on their business and investments and this is where they are exposed to financial risks. Without proper knowledge, they may not be able to avoid or mitigate the impacts if they become negative," he said.

Among strategies that can be employed by businesses to manage risks are to transfer risks to another party like insurance, avoiding risks like closing down high-risk businesses, reducing negative effects and accepting some or all of the potential or actual consequences, he added.

-- BERNAMA