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In The Winery
and do - happen almost anytime; they can disrupt
your operations, take a chunk out of your reserves,
kill your bank account, and cripple or destroy your
winery.
Trying to get your arms around all potential risks
and attempting to completely eliminate them is
unrealistic. On the other hand, not paying enough
attention to relevant risk management issue can
leave you unprotected. To that end, it makes sense
to be cautious. The biggest challenge in risk man-
agement is to find the proper balance between
peace of mind and running your winery.
Simply stated, risk management is a discipline for
dealing with uncertainty. It provides you with an
approach to recognize and confront the threats you
face. Risk can be very complicated, but it doesn’t
have to be. Every winery can start with a simple,
easy-to-follow plan that can manage and lessen
risk. If needed, you can expand from there.
Getting Started
Risk management goes beyond just identifying
risk; it is about learning to weigh your risks and
making decisions about which risks deserve imme-
diate attention.
There are many ways to undertake risk identifi-
cation; the key is using a system that allows you to
identify major risks facing your winery. It is import- worrying about and which are not.
ant to make a list and examine every risk, no mat-
ter how small; they could develop into something
more serious over time. To begin, a risk assessment
might start by examining some of the different
aspects of running your winery. You could look at
your:
1. Management practices
2. Hiring and volunteer policies
3. Training
4. Staff, guest, and visitor safety
5. Growing, harvesting, and production methods
6. Insurance coverage
7. Property and facilities
8. Warehousing
9. Workers compensation
10. Crisis and emergency planning
11. Auto and mobile equipment exposures
12. Social media
Although this might, at first glance, appear to be
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complicated and involved, a simple way to start
your own self-assessment that may be useful is to
gather a few members of your staff representing
various functions of your winery, and conduct a
brainstorming session by asking a few questions:
1. What can go wrong?
2. What are you concerned about?
3. What will we do to prevent harm from
occurring?
4. What will you do to lessen the worry?
5. How will you finance?
Your answers to each will provide you with a
direction for necessary action.
From this session, you’ll undoubtedly have a siz-
able list with many concerns. And, just making a
list of all possible risks is not enough. It is easy to
quickly become overwhelmed, so you’ll need a way
to take the risks you’re facing and put them into
perspective. Not all risks are created equal. Risk
management is not just about identifying risk; it is
about learning to weigh various risks and making
decisions about which risks deserve immediate
attention. In doing this you will often find that your
winery’s vulnerability to a risk is often a function of
financial impact. What are the odds that a particu-
lar risk will materialize, and how much is it likely to
cost? How much does your winery stand to lose as
a result? This helps quantify which risks are worth
Using a Risk Matrix in
Your Risk Assessment
A risk matrix is a valuable tool you can use to help
determine both the likelihood and the consequenc-
es of any particular risk. It helps you focus your
attention on those issues that have higher conse-
quences. In such a matrix, the likelihood is rated
from probable to improbable and the consequenc-
es are rated from acceptable to intolerable. A risk
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