Been There. Done That.

For the majority of my career I have been helping companies develop and manage risk management policies and procedures.  These companies include banks, insurance companies, and Fortune 500 companies.  I have done this from both consultant perspective, as well as by developing products to try to encourage more due diligence by lenders specifically.  However, until recently, the economy had been so good, that environmental risk management was often an afterthought and was just a "check-box" in the entire risk management process.  In addition, there were very few companies/individuals that were offering any consultation/assistance to companies to develop and implement policies for companies.   

However, we at ORMS are hearing from more and more clients that they are unhappy with their existing environmental policies and need help with them from an expert that has been in the field and that has real life experience in providing this type of service.  I will use lenders as our first example.  We have been hearing from lenders nationwide that they need a better way to manage their risk.  While they haven't run into a lot of issues over the past years, they are now facing issues on their loans that received very limited due diligence on the front end.  In fact, many have used what is often referred to as "file filler" due diligence to give the impression that due diligence was completed...even though many users aren't even aware of how to interpret the information.  

The good news is that many of them have begun to consider this and many have put "stop-gap" measures to try to manage their risks on holes in their policies.  However, many of their policies are very inconsistent and have gaps in both procedures, and more importantly, knowledge with what to do with the information that they get. 

The key to effective risk management is not just looking at white papers and articles (it helps of course), but actually working with experts with real world experience and consulting. In addition, if the proper policies are designed and implemented, the risk management process actually gets easier because the entire organization tends to communicate the details to each other regularly which avoids surprises.  So, even though you might be adding a step to the process, putting a good policy and procedures in place actually reduces risk, time and cost for lenders.  And if you can work with individuals that have "Been there. Done that.", you can feel more comfortable that they have the expertise to provide your organization with experience and credibility.