Setting the appetite for risk
Risk appetite, reputational and future risk.
A focused around four hours on making risk appetite usable: assessment and response, appetite, tolerance and capacity, public sector exposure and reputational warning signs.
- Level
- Focus
- Learning time
- 4 hours
- Where
- Strategic Risk
- Price
- £69
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion, or Certificate of Completion and Assessment with a short assessment
Overview and Outcomes.
Who It's For
Boards, audit committees and senior leaders who govern risk
Overview
Many boards approve a risk appetite statement that nobody can quote a month later. This programme makes appetite usable, starting with practical identification and assessment through Failure Mode and Effects Analysis and the four standard responses, then defining appetite, tolerance and capacity and how boards monitor drift. It compares public and private sector risk through Thurrock Council's investments, explores why reputation is where every other risk shows up, and reads the Global Risks Report 2026 across two horizons. A capstone on Volkswagen, Silicon Valley Bank and FTX brings the frameworks together.
Aims
This programme aims to develop boards and senior leaders who set risk appetite that actually changes decisions, govern risk with the public consequences of failure in view, and recognise the warning signs of drift and reputational harm early enough to act on them.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Identify, assess and respond to risks deliberately, using Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, a likelihood and impact matrix and the four standard responses.
- Assess whether a risk appetite statement is specific enough to guide decisions, and monitor appetite between reviews using dashboards, triggers and deep dives.
- Apply lessons from public sector risk, reputational failures and global risk horizons to strengthen how your board owns and oversees risk.
What you'll develop
Through this Focus course, you will build the ability to:
- Use Failure Mode and Effects Analysis and the Structured What If Technique to identify risks precisely, asking how a process could fail rather than whether it will.
- Distinguish risk appetite, risk tolerance and risk capacity and explain why a board needs all three.
- Explain how the consequence of failure, accountability and purpose of risk taking differ between public and private organisations.
- Explain why reputational risk is a consequence rather than a category, and describe its three distinguishing features.
- Describe the leading risks on the two year and ten year horizons and explain why their rankings differ.
- Analyse a real risk failure by identifying for yourself which frameworks apply and why.
Built from 3 parts.
4 hours of learning.
- 01How much risk is enough?Risk assessment and board risk appetiteBitesize2 modules
- 02When reputations are on the linePublic sector risk and reputational riskBitesize2 modules
- 03What lies over the horizonGlobal and emerging risk case studiesBitesize2 modules
Go deeper, and pay only the difference
- You are hereFocus, 4 hours, £69
- The whole topicImmerse, Risk worth taking, 9 hours 30 minutes, £249. Already own the Focus? You pay £180.
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Prices per person. Read the full terms