Risk management methods and systems

• US 20060155553A1
• Filed: 12/30/2004
• Published: 07/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Carole Gloria Brohman, Robert Lance Bexon
• Original Assignee: Carole Gloria Brohman, Robert Lance Bexon
• Inventors: Brohman, Carole Gloria, Bexon, Robert Lance
• Application Number:
  US11/024,696
• Publication Number:
  US 20060155553A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

Risk management methods and systems are disclosed. Information regarding implicit social contracts affecting an organization is collected from one or more sources which are external to the organization. A reputation risk to the organization is then identified based on the collected information, and an indication of the identified reputation risk is provided to the organization. If multiple reputation risks are identified, then the risks may be ranked according to one or more ranking priority criteria. Once identified, reputation risks may be used, for example, in determining a valuation associated with the organization, implementing a remedial action plan for the organization to mitigate the reputation risks, and implementing a training program to disseminate the implicit social contracts, the reputation risks, or both. Reviews of activities of other organizations or legal proceedings relating to the implicit social contracts or any identified risks may be useful in assessing the magnitude of a risk.

Claims

1. A risk management method comprising:

collecting, from at least one source external to an organization, information regarding implicit social contracts affecting the organization;

identifying a reputation risk to the organization based on the collected information; and

providing to the organization an indication of the identified reputation risk.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting comprises collecting the information using at least one of:

social survey, public document review, and retrieving previously collected information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting comprises collecting information from a plurality of sources.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying comprises:

identifying as a risk any activity of the organization which may breach or fail to fulfil any of the implicit social contracts.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein providing comprises at least one of:

printing an indication of the identified reputation risk, displaying an indication of the identified reputation risk, storing an indication of the identified reputation risk for subsequent retrieval, and transmitting to the organization an indication of the identified reputation risk.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying comprises identifying a plurality of reputation risks, further comprising:

ranking the plurality of identified reputation risks according to at least one ranking priority criterion,

wherein providing comprises providing an indication of the plurality of reputation risks in order of ranking.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the ranking priority criterion comprises at least one of:

a frequency of occurrence criterion associated with a frequency of occurrence of each of the implicit social contracts in the collected information, a source rank criterion associated with rankings of the at least one source, and a source-assigned priority criterion associated with implicit social contract priorities assigned by the at least one source.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

determining a valuation associated with the organization using the identified reputation risk;

determining and implementing a remedial action for the organization to mitigate the identified reputation risk;

collecting further information regarding risk factors affecting the organization from at least one internal source within the organization; and

determining and implementing a training program for the organization to disseminate the implicit social contracts, the identified reputation risk, or both.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

collecting further information regarding risk factors affecting the organization from at least one internal source within the organization;

identifying at least one operational risk to the organization based on the collected further information; and

providing to the organization an indication of the identified operational risk.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

collecting further information associated with activities of at least one other organization relating to the implicit social contracts or the identified risk and providing an indication thereof to the organization; and

collecting further information associated with legal proceedings relating to the implicit social contracts or the identified risk and providing an indication thereof to the organization.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after providing the indication:

repeating the collecting;

determining a change in current collected information and previously collected information;

determining a risk vector for the reputation risk based on the determined change; and

providing to the organization an indication of the risk vector.

12. A machine-readable medium storing instructions which when executed perform the method of claim 1.

13. A risk management system comprising:

an information collection module for collecting, from at least one source external to an organization, information regarding implicit social contracts affecting the organization;

a risk management module coupled to receive the collected information from the information collection module and configured to identify a reputation risk to the organization based on the collected information; and

an output for providing to the organization an indication of the identified reputation risk.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein at least one of the information collection module and the risk management module is implemented in a processor.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the information collection module collects information from at least one of:

social survey, public documents, and previously collected information.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the risk management module identifies the reputation risk by identifying as a risk any activity of the organization which may breach or fail to fulfil any of the implicit social contracts.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the output is coupled to at least one of:

a printer for printing an indication of the identified reputation risk, a display for displaying an indication of the identified reputation risk, a memory for storing an indication of the identified reputation risk for subsequent retrieval, and a transmitter for transmitting an indication of the identified reputation risk to the organization.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the risk management module is configured to identify a plurality of reputation risks and to rank the plurality of identified reputation risks according to at least one ranking priority criterion, and wherein the output provides an indication of the plurality of reputation risks in order of ranking.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the ranking priority criterion comprises at least one of:

a frequency of occurrence criterion associated with a frequency of occurrence of each of the implicit social contracts in the collected information, a source rank criterion associated with rankings of the at least one source, and a source-assigned priority criterion associated with implicit social contract priorities assigned by the at least one source.

20. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a valuation system for determining a valuation associated with the organization using the identified reputation risk.

21. The system of claim 13, wherein the risk management system further determines a remedial action for the organization to mitigate the identified reputation risk.

22. The system of claim 13, wherein the information collection module is configured to collect further information regarding risk factors affecting the organization from at least one internal source within the organization and to identify at least one operational risk to the organization based on the collected further information, and wherein the output provides an indication of the identified operational risk.

23. The system of claim 13, wherein the information collection module is configured to collect further information associated with activities of at least one other organization relating to the implicit social contracts or the identified risk, wherein the risk management module is further configured to determine a potential impact of the activities on the organization, and wherein the output provides an indication of the activities of the at least one other organization and the potential impact of the activities on the organization.

24. The system of claim 13, wherein the information collection module is configured to collect further information associated with legal proceedings relating to the implicit social trusts or the identified risk, wherein the risk management module is further configured to determine a potential impact of the legal proceedings on the organization, and wherein the output provides an indication of the legal proceedings and the potential impact of the legal proceedings on the organization.

25. The system of claim 13, wherein the information collection module is configured to collect information after the reputation risk has been identified, wherein the risk management module is further configured to determine a change in current collected information and previously collected information and a risk vector for the reputation risk based on the determined change, and wherein the output provides an indication of the risk vector.

26. The system of claim 13, wherein the information collection module is coupled to an interface for receiving the information from the at least one source.

27. The system of claim 13, further comprising at least one of:

a user interface for receiving the information as user inputs; and

a communication signal receiver for receiving the information in communication signals.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the output is coupled to at least one of the user interface and a transmitter for transmitting communication signals to the organization.

29. A risk management method comprising:

collecting, from at least one source external to an organization, information regarding implicit social contracts affecting the organization;

identifying a reputation risk to the organization based on the collected information;

collecting further information associated with activities of at least one other organization relating to the implicit social contracts or the identified risk; and

providing to the organization an indication of the identified risk and the activities of the at least one other organization.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising at least one of:

(a) determining a remedial action plan for the organization to mitigate the identified reputation risk, collecting further information regarding an impact of the remedial action plan on the implicit social contracts, and implementing the remedial action plan where the further information indicates a positive impact of the remedial action plan on the implicit social contracts;

(b) determining and implementing a training program for the organization to disseminate the implicit social contracts, the identified reputation risk, or both;

(c) collecting further information associated with legal proceedings relating to the implicit social contracts or the identified risk and providing an indication thereof to the organization; and

(d) determining a valuation associated with the identified reputation risk based on any of the further information.