Should You Get Creative in Risk Areas?

I’m often saying you can be creative anywhere.  Innovation doesn’t have to just be about new products or marketing.  It can also be about improving processes.  But should you really be creative about things like your legal contracts or risk procedures?

The answer is yes, but with a caveat.  Many times you can increase efficiency by cutting out a part of a process or doing things in different ways.  For example, are your customer or client contracts very user friendly?  Maybe there is something to do in this area.  But I can hear a few people getting jittery about messing with control procedures, legal documents and anything else that protects a business.

That’s where the caveat comes in.  You can’t just innovate for the sake of it.  First, come up with ideas, but then you need to think about what will work and what won’t.  It is a two step process, but you need to be careful not to mix the two.  You could stop a good idea in its tracks by judging it too early.

However, you shouldn’t use the excuse that ‘this is a risk procedures so we can’t change it!’.  Genuine advances in administration areas such as legal and accounting may give you a more streamlined and efficient business which creates a competitive advantage.

For a look at a lawyer trying something different, Jon Groth’s blog is worth a read.