Risk avoidance is a strategy used to eliminate hazards, activities, and exposures that can negatively affect an organization and its assets. It involves not performing an activity that could present risk, and it seeks to avoid compromising events entirely. Risk avoidance is a specific type of approach to managing risk, requiring a methodical process. Leaders must identify and assess the risks their organization faces and determine how they will eliminate the chances of those risks causing damage to the organization. Risk avoidance is not the same as failing to identify a risk or ignoring it altogether.

Risk avoidance is one of the four major categories of risk management techniques, which include avoidance, reduction, sharing, and retention. Once risks have been identified and assessed, all techniques to manage the risk fall into one or more of these categories. Risk avoidance is different from risk reduction, which involves taking actions to mitigate an organizations risks.

In summary, risk avoidance is a strategy that involves eliminating hazards, activities, and exposures that can negatively affect an organization and its assets. It is a specific type of approach to managing risk that requires a methodical process, and it is one of the four major categories of risk management techniques.