This section on the basics of risk management clarifies what risk management tools are, how to identify the risks associated with any project or system, and how to minimize risk impacts. Minimizing risks also means better production, hence following risk management basics also covers dealing with risks to increase productivity.

Risk management continues to evolve. What began as an insurance purchasing role has expanded to a much broader responsibility. Risk management now includes a more holistic analysis of business and financial risks, risk-bearing capacity and the development of strategic solutions to numerous areas of organizational risk.

Risk relates to the uncertainty arising from any known or unknown sources.Decisions based on bad information can lead to poor results and be quite costly to organizations.This may culminate in the squandering of opportunities, taking on unnecessary risk, misallocating resources, and ultimately not achieving strategic goals or objectives. At a time of shrinking budgets and increasing expectations to do more with less, making better decisions based on informed judgment has taken on even more significance for both private sector and government organizations.

While analytics is the extensive use of data, statistical and quantitative analysis, explanatory and predictive models, and fact-based management to drive decisions and actions enterprise resource management also rests on order to analyse potential risk and make informed judgments. In many ways, it can enable organizations to meet their missions while avoiding hazards and mitigating loss ERM focuses on potential events and their classification into opportunities and risks. It's about balancing risk and opportunities; that requires an organization to go beyond simple regulatory compliance and embed this discipline into its organizational strategy, governance, and culture.