What is ISO 31000?
ISO 31000 is an international standard that provides principles and guidelines for risk management. It outlines a comprehensive approach to identifying, analyzing, evaluating, treating, monitoring and communicating risks across an organization.
Why is ISO 31000 important?
In today's fast-paced and unpredictable world, every organization, regardless of its size or sector, encounters risks that can either pose threats or offer opportunities. ISO 31000 serves as a beacon:
- Comprehensive Understanding: It fosters a shared understanding of risks, their nature, and ways to manage them across an organization.
- Strategic Decision-Making: The guidelines help embed risk management into an organization’s governance, strategy, planning, reporting processes, policies, values, and culture.
- Operational Excellence: Implementing ISO 31000 can lead to efficiency gains, as it helps organizations recognize potential threats and opportunities in time, allocate resources wisely, and enhance stakeholder confidence.
- Proactive Approach: Rather than being purely reactive, ISO 31000 equips organizations to anticipate and address risks head-on, turning potential challenges into strategic advantages.
- Stakeholder Confidence: A structured approach to risk management signals to stakeholders – from investors to customers – that the organization is robustly prepared to navigate uncertainties, reinforcing trust and credibility.
Benefits
- Standard risk management principles, framework and process
- Guidance for implementing risk management practices
- Tools for contextualizing risk management to any organization
- Criteria for monitoring, reviewing and continually improving risk management
- Foundation for integrating risk management throughout an organization
FAQ
ISO 31000 is valuable for any organization seeking to implement a comprehensive approach to risk management including:
- Companies in heavily regulated industries like financial services, healthcare, energy
- Public and governmental organizations Project management and engineering firms
- Consultancies who advise clients on risk management Organizations wanting to build a risk management culture
No. ISO 31000 provides good practice guidelines but is not a certifiable risk management standard. However, it provides an excellent framework on which to build a robust risk management program.
For risk managers, applying ISO 31000 brings:
- Internationally-accepted principles and guidelines for risk management
- A structured framework for implementing risk processes
- Standard criteria for monitoring, reviewing and improving risk management
- Tools for reporting and communicating risks organization-wide
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General information
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Status: PublishedPublication date: 2018-02Stage: International Standard confirmed [90.93]
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Edition: 2Number of pages: 16
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Technical Committee :ISO/TC 262ICS :03.100.01
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Life cycle
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Previously
WithdrawnISO 31000:2009
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Now
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