Page 165 - Microsoft Word - 00 Prelims.docx
P. 165

Risk and Uncertainty





                           Introduction







                             All businesses face risk. Risk is the variability of possible returns.

               Risk management is important in a business. It is the process of understanding and
               managing the risks that an organisation is inevitably subject to.




                                    Risk                                         Uncertainty


                     There are a number of possible                 Uncertainty: there are a number
                      outcomes and the probability of                 of possible outcomes but the
                      each outcome is known.                          probability of each outcome is
                                                                      not known.







                For example, based on past                      For example, the same oil company
                 experience of digging for oil in a             may dig for oil in a previously

                particular area, an oil company may             unexplored area. The company
                                                                knows that it is possible for them to
                estimate that they have a 60% chance            either find or not find oil but it does
                 of finding oil and a 40% chance of not         not know the probabilities of each of
                finding oil.                                    these outcomes.























                                                                                                      159
   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170