Conduct Risk Analysis (Including Compliance and Legal)

This step turns risk into a managed system, not a surprise. Bring together and structure all the key risks identified across your strategy: from market and financial to legal and operational. Classify, assess, and assign them, ensuring clear ownership, mitigation actions, and trigger points for response.

Why it's Matters

Risk isn’t an isolated topic. It runs through every aspect of your strategy. This step brings together the risks identified across your business planning process and ensures they’re assessed, prioritized, and paired with clear mitigation or escalation plans. Done right, this builds resilience and trust without slowing progress.

What You Need to Do

Go back through your full strategic plan to surface embedded risks
Add additional risks across legal, people, delivery, and operations
Categorize by type and severity; flag potential deal-breakers
Define risk owners, mitigation actions, and trigger points for escalation
Include core compliance areas: IP, employment, data, contracts

How to Approach It

Revisit each strategic section (market, GTM, team, finance, etc.)
Extract all risks discussed or implied and note what’s missing
Classify them using a matrix (likelihood × impact + deal-breakers)
Create a structured risk register with owner, mitigation, and trigger
Identify which risks become critical at different growth stages

Deliverables

Strategic risk register with triggers and thresholds
Mitigation plan
Lightweight compliance checklist (IP, legal, HR, data)

How to Tell if You Got It Right

You’ve captured and structured all known strategic risks
You know what triggers action and who’s responsible
Risks are monitored, not just documented
You’re prepared to manage a crisis calmly

What to Watch Out For

Treating risks as theoretical instead of operational
Unowned risks with unclear responses
No definition of “dealbreaker” thresholds or mitigation timing