Risk management: what can you really manage?

There is so much written about risk management, itseemsthat there is nothing left to say. Conceptually, “risk” is used to denote perils, loss, dangerous occurrences, hazards, and even vulnerabilities. Those of us who had to teach management at college and university levels know that management from the time of Henri Fayol’s 14 principles in 1916 to current management teaching includes functional principles such as planning, organizing, commanding, controlling, leading, budgeting; principles in human resources like personnel administration, human motivation and relations, training, development and performance appraisals, and operational management. In other words, risk management, involves every aspect of an organization’s status and operations. But what aboutsecurity in a global supply chain? In the supply chain there are risk elements like third parties, foreign shippers, carriers, weather, foreign governmentinvolvement, disruption in the process, timing, language, cargo quality and quantity, and other forces.