1. Business risks and risk management

1.1 Company resources

Using the "black box" concept, the company can be seen as a system that consumes resources to provide users with products or services (whose intrinsic value is greater than that of the resources consumed). These resources are of four types (figure 1 ):

• physical resources: energy, machinery, means of transport, etc. ;

• human resources ;

• information resources and intellectual services: manufacturing processes, design offices, etc. ;

• financial resources: capital, customer payments, etc.