Expanding the general risk management focus of modern businesses is essential for maintaining long-term stability. Going a step further to the operational set of risks ensures continuity in an ever-evolving local and global environment.
There are well over 33 million small businesses across the United States. That number jumps when you look at SMEs with international contacts and workforces. To say there is a risk when so many working parts have to function well for profit is an understatement.
Around 23.2% of private sector companies fail within the first year. After 5, that number jumps to 48% and 65.3% after a decade. Making it through to a sustainable operation with predictable revenue and gainful employment for your target workforce requires careful attention to overarching risk and specific operational concerns.
General Risk Management vs. Operational Risk Management
Risk management is a broader discipline. It covers a massive perspective of a business’s operation, from market fluctuations across the globe to reinvestment of profits in assets. The higher-level strategy is designed to safeguard assets and maintain compliance while you go through different systems of optimization for better outcomes and performance.
Operational Risk Management (ORM) is a bit different. You are more focused on daily risks within your organization’s framework. This may include things like human error, technological disruptions, inefficiencies, or compliance/cyber changes.
Think of general risk management as the macro perspective for your business, with ORM as the micro for daily operational success. That will give you a better idea of how to address some of the more common operational risk management trends hitting businesses in 2025.
Operational Risk Trends for 2025
1. Escalating Cybersecurity Threats: Ransomware and Data Breaches
Cyberattacks directly impact internal operations. Ransomware, like the recently announced Medusa attack, could cost a company millions. The ransomware-as-a-service attack uses phishing to steal a victim’s credentials. Once acquired, the software encrypts crucial data, and the attacker threatens to release or delete everything unless a ransom is paid (usually in cryptocurrency to remain anonymous).
While you need a broad spectrum strategy for protection involving patching systems, using multifactor authentication and VPNs, you would benefit more from risk management software that monitors systems in real-time for potential cyber threats.
2. Strengthening Physical Security for People and Assets
Any time your employees feel unsafe or cannot access crucial information to perform their job roles, you risk severe inefficiencies and resource allocation. The fallout from the global pandemic on healthcare providers is a perfect example of physical security threats in operational risk management trends.
Healthcare workers are five times as likely to experience workplace violence than employees in other industries. That statistic is before COVID-19, a time before the violence ramp-up exploded.
Your workers need to feel safe and secure to perform job duties. Something as minor as a political campaign button on a shirt could lead to extreme workplace violence, putting your human and non-human assets at risk. These will slow production in the moment and for the future as the repercussions of such events have a ripple effect throughout the rest of your company’s culture.
The implementation of integrated security measures, including biometric authentication, AI-powered surveillance, access controls, and good old-fashioned crowd control, is becoming more and more acceptable in the workplace.
3. Workforce Turnover: A Growing Risk Factor
Almost half of all employee turnover is preventable, but often ignored. People are actively looking for better work in terms of benefits, salary/wage, perks, and overall job security. The recent federal-level firings have made this situation even more volatile.
Whenever your company is at risk of large groups or key employees leaving, you have a period of turnover that lowers productivity and costs you financial resources in new team member training and onboarding.
To combat this risk, you need to develop a strong culture where everyone feels valued and appreciated. Integrating powerful software that fosters cross-departmental engagement so everyone feels “bought-in” to your company's success is crucial for future-proofing.
4. Economic Volatility: A Constant Risk Factor
The United States may be the wealthiest country in the world, but that doesn’t make us safe from financial instability. Inflation, rising interest rates, and supply chain disruptions put massive pressure on companies to better adapt operational strategies. Addressing these volatilities is a serious risk management trends 2025 issue.
On top of these factors is the rising cost of risk mitigation, and you want to find a single affordable tool for complete company stability. You need to look through the lens of providing as much data as possible to decision-makers so operational budgeting constraints are no longer a risk.
What begins as a general risk, like tariffs placed on goods moving in and out of the country, quickly becomes a concern for the local small businesses in LA or Vermont. Having crucial data “at hand” helps mitigate this risk as much as possible.
5. Digital Resilience: The Key to Business Continuity
The idea of digital resilience is to build your operations so when IT failures or system outages occur, you’re prepared and equipped to minimize the risk of unwanted and expensive downtime.
You have to think beyond cybersecurity and into the realm of ensuring your entire digital ecosystem remains functioning. The July 19, 2024 CrowdStrike outage is the perfect example. This was an update sent by a third-party vendor that crashed about 8.5 million Windows-running PCs.
Setting up your digital systems for redundancy, cloud operation, access control, and automation with real-time monitoring ensures you can maintain operations – even in the most unpredictable situations.
6. Shifting Regulatory Compliance
Regulatory compliance is more of a general risk, but not when it impacts administrative burdens. ESG requirements can quickly over-task your essential workers, causing operational slowdowns and new technology rollouts that lead to integration challenges.
Many government watchdogs and oversight departments are undergoing significant transformation due to cutbacks. The problem for many local businesses is adapting to these changes while at the same time maintaining international concerns for profit viability.
There is a balancing act that requires real-time ESG metrics only addressable with modern systems like those from Pirani. You can reduce the operational workload of your risk management by up to 60% while still maintaining the compliance needed so you can function both in and out of U.S. borders.
7. The Risk of a Fragmented ORM Approach
A massive trend in ORM is preventing fragmentation. Siloed strategies create inefficiencies and operational blind spots. Consolidating risk data, automating reporting, and centralizing ORM functions are the keys to maintaining a competitive advantage in today’s marketplace.
Improved collaboration between different departments and risk assessments enhances strategic decision-making. It generates a more comprehensive risk perspective so you can proactively protect your operations and allocate resources where they will provide the most support.
8. The Consequences of Skipping Scenario-Based Risk Testing
The final operational risk management trend worth bringing up is implementing scenario-based testing. Running simulations allows you to prepare your systems and team members better. You can roleplay scenarios using realistic data without actually placing your company at greater risk or providing a play-by-play scenario your competitors could steal.
Failure to simulate operational crises opens up your business to future unpreparedness that could cost you millions in short-term and long-term damages. A tool that will audit processes based on these scenarios provides a solid and reliable solution to ensure productivity and enhanced marketing that attracts customers due to higher trust capital.
Conclusion: The Future of Operational Risk Management in 2025
Operational risk management trends in 2025 and beyond all come down to awareness. Having the tools in place so you can adopt a proactive, AI-driven, and integrated ORM strategy is the best way to ensure continuity and competitive solvency.
Staying ahead of these risk management trends means better positioning your company to protect assets, maintain compliance, and futureproof due to stronger business resilience. With so many external threats from an evolving socioeconomic and political playing field, US-based companies need an equally internal-facing solution to provide stakeholders and customers peace of mind.
Pirani is here to help organizations of all sizes streamline ORM processes. The cutting-edge risk management software supports operations by anticipating, monitoring, and mitigating risks – all in real-time. Explore how Pirani’s advanced risk management solutions can help your business stay ahead so you and your team can focus on far more important business needs like product development, customer satisfaction, and scalable growth.
The U.S. may be experiencing significant changes, but your company can prevent knee-jerk reactions using the all-in-one risk prevention benefit of Pirani.
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