ISO 31000:2018
2018-02
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
ISO 31000 provides principles, a framework and a process for managing risk. It can be used by any organization regardless of its size, activity or sector.
Using ISO 31000 can help organizations increase the likelihood of achieving objectives, improve the identification of opportunities and threats and effectively allocate and use resources for risk treatment.
However, ISO 31000 cannot be used for certification purposes, but does provide guidance for internal or external audit programmes. Organizations using it can compare their risk management practices with an internationally recognized benchmark, providing sound principles for effective management and corporate governance.
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General information
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Status: PublishedPublication date: 2018-02Stage: International Standard to be revised [90.92]
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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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Will be replaced by
Under developmentISO/AWI 31000
