Looking under the bonnet: finding your operational risks

Stopping what you’re doing can feel counterproductive. In business, it might just be the thing that saves you. David Smithson-Rudd explains why.

When things feel calm on the surface, most founders stay focused on the present. That’s understandable; you’re juggling a dozen priorities, and if there are no fires burning, it’s natural to assume all is well. The thing is, operational risks don’t always announce themselves. They often sit quietly in the background, waiting to cost you money, cause reputational damage, or worse, they could hurt someone.

In large organisations, there are dedicated people looking under the bonnet: compliance officers, improvement teams, HR business partners. In smaller businesses, especially founder-led ones, that job often falls through the cracks; not because leaders don’t care, but because time and headspace are thin on the ground.

The size of your business doesn’t exempt you from needing to do this work. If anything, it makes it more critical.

What might be hiding under the bonnet

Some of the most common risks I see in smaller businesses are:

• Employment contracts that haven’t been reviewed since they were first introduced (or sourced from the internet…)

• A lack of documented policies, handbooks or internal processes

• No clear plan for what happens if the founder or key decision maker is unavailable

• Inconsistent or insufficient approaches to GDPR and document management

• Overreliance on a single person to ‘know how everything works’

These issues rarely cause chaos overnight. They build slowly and are often only discovered after a complaint, a resignation, or a near miss. Even when leaders suspect there’s a problem, they often underestimate the risk.

That’s not down to laziness, it’s just human nature. We trust what we’ve built, we stick to the systems we know, and we convince ourselves we’re across everything. Unfortunately, even the most successful humans have blind spots. Finding them early gives you options; ignoring them eventually takes those options away.

Start with one hour

You don’t need a complex tool to get started, just a quiet hour and a pen and paper. Try asking yourself:

• When was our employment contract last reviewed by someone with the right knowledge?

• Do we have clear, accessible documentation that sets expectations and keeps us compliant?

• If I became seriously unwell tomorrow, what would happen? Would the team know what to do?

• Where are we wasting time, or spending unnecessarily, without realising?

You may realise one hour won’t be enough, and that’s fine. The point is to get started. Once you’ve started, you’ll naturally carve out time to go deeper.

Don't try to fix it all alone

After identifying your risks, your first instinct might be to act quickly. Before rushing into solutions, take a pause. Not every problem deserves equal attention, and trying to fix the wrong thing first can waste time or cause more disruption.

This is where input from others becomes valuable. Consider speaking with:

• Colleagues or other leaders in your business

• Trusted employees who experience day-to-day realities

• Your business advisors, mentors, or Non-Executive Directors

You don’t need to share everything (and in many cases, you shouldn’t), but getting a range of perspectives will help you prioritise. You may find some problems are smaller than they first appeared, and others are more urgent than you thought.

Overwhelmed? You’re not alone

If this all feels daunting, take a breath. You’ve built something from the ground up, you’re employing people, you’re adding value. Looking under the bonnet doesn’t change that, it simply protects and strengthens what you’ve already built.

Key takeaway: you don’t have to do it by yourself.

At Consult DSR, I help business owners identify risks, engage their teams, and put smart, proportionate resolutions in place. This can be done at your pace, and within your budget. You don’t need a full overhaul, but you do need to lift the bonnet before something breaks.

If you're ready to get started, book a call: no pressure, just a conversation.