Every business has its own "idiosyncrasies" in how it poses risks to its workers, the public and itself, according to the chairman of a recently formed Irish association of risk managers.

Mr Frank McGowan, chairman of the Association of Irish Risk Managers (AIRM), says risk management requires businesses and organisations to identify the distinctive ways in which they pose "risk to the individual, risk to the company and risk to the public". Risk management involves identifying risks and establishing procedures to manage those risks in order to avoid "loss, damage, injury or death", he says.

There are good and bad risks. Good risks include calculated risk-taking by an entrepreneur or a business in a new venture. Good risk-taking has as its goal the good of the business, the community or profit. But bad risks damage businesses and detrimentally affect the organisation, its workers or members of the public.

"The risks that we're talking about are risks of danger of whatever type," he says. These bad risks include risks to the health and safety of workers and the public, stress, bullying, poor ergonomics and healthcare, inadequate environmental management, poor fleet management, deficient security and exposure to computer fraud. There are many areas embraced by risk management, he says. "This is why we've set up this organisation, to bring together everyone who is involved in the whole business so we can have a process of self-help."

Articulating the dilemma for some businesses, he asks: "Do we go ultra-cautiously and risk losing time, losing business or not doing the job or not getting the job done in time, or do we ignore possible safety hazards and risks to get the job done quickly, to maximise the profit?" Identifying bad risks and measuring them "may not be an exact science but risk can be defined very clearly in most industries" and responsible strategies adopted, such as the use of safety helmets, steel capped boots and proper scaffolding in the construction sector. The new association, which was "born out" of the Association of Burglary Insurance Surveyors (ABIS), aims to provide a forum for the interchange of ideas and knowledge about risk management and is open to companies, individuals and students. Mr McGowan formed the view in ABIS "that there was no such thing anymore as a specialist burglary surveyor. That the insurance industry and industry in general has been changing dramatically. And that the emphasis now was on risk management rather than on individual areas" such as security, fire, business interruption - "everything that could end up costing a company financially, any kind of risk that might be dangerous to them".

So AIRM was formed and recently launched by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy. The Minister said that while many companies complain about insurance costs, they could attend to the "ways in which they themselves can influence that aspect of the costs of running their business. Indeed, the very availability of insurance may have allowed organisations to become complacent about risk management. "What is required is the development of a mindset in which company boards, managers and employees work together to develop an awareness of the risks in their environment and introduce appropriate strategies to minimise those risks," he said. AIRM intends to hold seminars over the next 18 months on ergonomics, stress and bullying, environmental issues, computer fraud, construction health and safety, security, and healthcare. The association hopes to publish an official journal on risk management. According to Mr Peter Kilcullen, a founding member of AIRM, this will be a specialist magazine which will cover "all aspects of risk management and act as a forum for the dissemination of information and ideas". "Within ABIS, the membership found that its role was changing from the narrow focus of security to one of the wider field of risk management and risk assessment. Major companies and organisations were appointing in-house risk managers and what was now required was the establishment of a network for the dissemination of knowledge, information and ideas to all risk managers," said Mr Kilcullen.

He hopes that AIRM will have a membership of 1,000 within 12 or 18 months, including companies, individuals and students, with membership fees ranging from about £10 for students to £750 for large companies.

For further information about AIRM, contact Mr Frank McGowan, Northumberland House, 44 Northumberland Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. Tel: 01 668 8244; fax: 01 668 6769; e-mail nlandhse@indigo.ie