Two months ago we started our examination of the seven "S" model, now at last we can complete this area and start to use it as a risk management tool.  We were interrupted because of the great news from the AIRM about the CPRM and my need to get the concept of stakeholder value rather than shareholder value into our view of the intrinsic valuation of a successful business. 

 

In the last article on this topic we discussed the first four of the seven "s", for review purposes, the seven are:

 

1. Strategy

2. Structure

3. Systems

4. Style

5. Staffing

6. Skills base

7. Shared values

 

 

5. Staffing: This is a significant issue as the overused phrase states "our people are our greatest resource." Unfortunately by being used as a shallow statement it has lost it's meaning and is no longer acceptable as a statement of fact by the majority of workers.

Accordingly we have to change the way we think about WORK. We can no longer take the view that we turn up to our place of employment and undertake tasks until the working day is over and we return to our homes until the next day.  The new measurement for a worker to be valuable will be an embracement of the concept of resource usage and asset creation.  That is we arrive at work and during the course of the day we consume scarce resources in the performance of our job as long as at the end of the day we have added more assets than we have consumed we are of value to the business in the truest sense.  It we consume more than we add then we are an off balance sheet liability to the organisation. When we have embraced this concept then we can truly be judged as the most valuable asset to an organisation.

 

6. Skills base: Under law a registered entity is regarded as a separate "person", hence an organisation can act on its own behalf, in truth that means by its agents. Therefore an organisation needs capacity and capability to perform its business function. In practice humans on an ongoing basis perform these factors. Therefore any organisation has a responsibility to develop and sustain the concept of corporate memory. Corporate memory is expressed as the culture of an organisation and the way it does things that make it unique amongst its peers. Corporate memory is in fact the cumulative memory and contribution of its staff over a long period of time. A business will ignore its corporate memory maintenance at its own peril. This aspect is not to be confused with lack of action in the process of restructuring for a successful future.

  

7. Shared values: This, the last of the seven "s" draws the process together. An organisation states its explicit and implied values and goals to its staff and other stakeholders. The acceptance by the stakeholders of the shared value concepts ensures the process is internalised and the scene is set for success. Failure to nourish the process of internalization will result in an organisation that must rely on jargon and threat to succeed and this can only be in the short term before failure overcomes it.

  

So there we have it, a process for the implementation of the culture of risk management within an organisation.  The interesting aspect that emerges from an examination of the seven "s" ‘s is the need for teamwork from all sides of the organisation and the need to share and respect each perspective.