The Classification of Risks and the Activities that Make up Risk Management

There is no unified definition of risk in the business economics literature. Risk derives from the Italian word “risicare,” meaning “to dare.” In general, it can be stated that risk is any event capable of directly or indirectly compromising the survival of the company. For this reason, the dimension of risk assumes importance today more than ever in determining the effects that hostile and/or potentially harmful events can create on business continuity. Hence the need to anticipate these events with complex tools to reduce their probability and the adverse effects they can generate on the company. Predicting hostile events is central to decision-making processes and corporate management. To these are added the numerous tools used in practice by companies. Tools that, over the years, have recorded a growing quantitative evolution with an increase in their complexity. Tools that dynamically try to respond to the numerous threats that economic activities may encounter. In this section, always following an economic-business approach, we want to classify business risks and then highlight the practices that have followed one another over the years and the various activities that distinguish the integrated Risk Management systems. Finally, we want to describe some risk estimation techniques, the use of which helps to strengthen corporate decision-making processes.