What role does risk management have to play in a recession? For most companies, preparing for and surviving the downturn means brutal cost-cutting in order to survive. So why would we spend time and money on improving our risk management processes at such a time? In fact,...
The formal approach your clients are employing to understand project risk may not guarantee project success Chances are most of your client’s project management frameworks include some form of risk management process for any significant project. After all, if the project matters, the PMO, legal team, risk or compliance...
As organisations get a little larger, teams tend to coalesce around the concept of “projects” whereby small teams can organise themselves around simple actions and outcomes. As organisations get larger still, the projects get bigger, and more complex, and this is when things tend to go...
Delivering significant projects and programmes to time, budget and scope has always been a risky business. As we emerge from the pandemic, the job of delivering projects has got a lot riskier The backlog of projects means that many have been initiated at the same time with...
The real reasons why applying Quantitative Schedule Risk Analysis doesn’t guarantee programme success. Many programme managers and consultants are familiar with QSRA, virtually an “industry standard” for large scale infrastructure programmes. The aim is to try and establish the schedule risk (ie the probability of meeting...
It is fair to say that, these days, most medium to large organisations will have some form of formal risk management process. It is also fair to say that most of these organisations generally view these processes with some suspicion as, deep-down, they don’t believe...
The coronavirus lockdown is a great opportunity to reevaluate business practices, reach new markets and grow. Find out how to do so safely here....
We all knew it was coming, so why did we fail to prepare for Covid-19? This article explores how Black Swans and Groupthink phenomena exacerbated the coronavirus outbreak. And what we can learn to prepare for the next one....
Science is increasingly telling us that we have multiple personalities on a personality spectrum. There are multiple versions of ‘you’ inside your own head. Whichever personality ‘you’ are depends on many different circumstances – such as what mood you are in, the environment you are...
The government must prioritise its Brexit preparedness projects with utmost efficiency if it wishes to deliver them before the deadline next March. Read how this can and should be done here....
Too few businesses have the 25th May 2018 set as a key milestone date in their organisation’s calendar. This is the date when the European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect. GDPR will be a new EU data compliance law, designed to ensure that...
Read on and learn how to accurately quantify risks; explore why traditional risk management methods are not as effective as people might believe, and what it is that can be done about it for effective risk management....
In this post, we're going to look at where risk management fails and what you can do in order to fix it. read on to find out more....
A number of commentators have pointed out that TSB chief executive Paul Pester’s love of surfing and triathlons should have made him well-placed to cope with adversity and sudden shocks – such as the sudden and total IT failure which has seriously dented his company’s...
If Theresa May, as predicted, wins the General Election on the 8th June and strengthens her majority and mandate in the House of Commons, then we can expect the official negotiations for Britain's exit from the EU to begin in earnest. In deciding its own goals...
Ever heard that statement? Normally what they really mean is “I get it, but why does it have to be so formal?” The deciding factor on how much formality is appropriate should be based on the size and complexity of the project or programme. In ABCD...
The "Fast-Track to Success: Risk Management" is now published and available on Amazon.com andAmazon.co.uk Business is all about managing risk and taking opportunities. However, this is normally approached in an informal way which leads to highly unpredictable results. Let’s look a number of common roles in...
Issue management is a natural and essential part of project management. But if it is not set up correctly, it will compromise or even completely undermine your risk management. Defining issues and risks is not as easy as it looks On the surface, it’s quite clear: an...
It always starts the same way – “So what is it that you do, risk management? So you work for a bank?” Err no. “So you are in insurance?” No not quite. “Health and safety?” Definitely not!" So what exactly is “risk management” and where...
[blockquote text="Last week we looked at the first part of our trip to Kenya to see how Oxfam approach the subject of project and risk management. You can read the first part by clicking on the link at the top of this page -...
[blockquote text="Last week De-RISK started a new engagement with Oxfam GB (Horn East and Central Africa Region) to look at how the risk management techniques we have successfully employed in big corporations might be adapted for use in their work programmes. This blog diarises...
This article was originally published in Project Manager Today in April 2008. We all know that mountaineers take extreme risks but perhaps it’s not as simple as it seems. Good mountaineers are certainly superb risk managers but the nature of the terrain, conditions and competency...
"Strategic Risk Management - Taking the Long View" Most companies have risk management processes in place, but there is too much focus on...
Enterprise risk management (ERM) is the Holy Grail in many organisations. Recent events have made ERM even more desirable in some businesses but is this achievable in reality or just science fiction? What is Enterprise Risk Management?Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is a process by which the total...
What is groupthink? The word ‘groupthink’ refers to a strange phenomenon that happens when people come together in groups to make important decisions. It is what happens when a group of well-intentioned, experienced and intelligent people come together and collectively make bad decisions. Groupthink applies whenever people...
Many of you will be familiar with ABCD risk management and its benefits. But have you really thought why it is so effective when compared to "traditional" risk management approaches? To explain this you really have to consider the psychology behind traditional risk approaches...
n 2008, Nassim Nicholas Talib published a book called "The Black Swan". A Black Swan is defined as being an event which has three characteristics; it is highly improbable, has massive impact and, in a strange way, appears almost inevitable after the event! Due...
Many sales professionals will shy away from the subject of risk, preferring to play down or deliberately ignore the inherent risks in their proposals. Good sales professionals will realise that risk can be turned around to become a massive competitive differentiator and the way...