Business & Finance

Risk Management Risk Management is an essential part of a project’s success. It is a process that helps to identify potential problems early, so that action plans can be put into place to keep them from turning into real problems or issues later on in the project life cycle.Risk Management Process Essentially there are 5 stages to the risk management process: * Planning * Identifying * Assessing * Handling * Monitoring and ReportingThe following paragraphs will describe a little bit about each step.Planning The planning step sets the stage on how the project is going to manage risks on the project. This is accomplished by first developing a risk management plan for the project. This plan will identify the Risk Continue reading…

In each human endeavour there is an element of risk; personal, project or financial, or a combination of them all. The job of the responsible individual is to identify the risk and act accordingly. We all do these ‘risky’ things, almost daily, aware that we are taking a risk. Rather than staying away from the risk we become adept at identifying it and having a strategy for dealing with it if the risk materialises. This is what risk management is about, and is an ability that is important in virtually every endeavour.The popular misconception that risk management is difficult or complicated stems from the bureaucratic methodology of some system-oriented organisations and managers. It is neither complicated or bureaucratic, and need Continue reading…

In the Defence industry, Risk Management is paramount. Most Defence companies have a whole department dedicated to it. No bid or project can start without a Risk Management Review and no bid will be accepted by a potential customer without the inclusion of a Risk Management Plan.Risk Management is an ongoing process – it’s “cradle to grave”, starting on receipt of an invitation to tender, covering the bid period, the life of the project up to delivery then on through subsequent support phases.The process, following distribution of an invitation to tender, will be that the allocated Risk Manager calls a meeting of all the department heads or their representatives. Thus, the attendance in respect of a sizeable bid will be Continue reading…

Risk management is a key business process nowadays, when regulatory requirements place major compliance burdens on many business sectors, and when directors must be able to show that they have undertaken due diligence as regards all business risks.Many people view risk management as a complex and confusing specialism. However, the management of risk is based on a few common-sense principles that are quite straightforward. To begin with, managing risks constitutes the final stage of a risk-based methodology, as follows:Identify all relevant assets and their values.Conduct a risk assessment for the assets, in terms of their vulnerabilities, the potential threats (with probabilities), and the impact on the business if the threats were to materialise. The result will be a risk matrix, Continue reading…

What is Risk Management?A good definition of risk is:“The possibility of loss, injury, disadvantage or destruction”Manage, according to the New World Dictionary, is defined:“v.t. to guide or handle with skill or authority; control; direct” Management is the noun. So Risk Management could be defined as:The practice with processes, procedures, methods and tools of handling, of controlling risks in a project or activity, function or business with a view to the reduction of those risks to an economically acceptable level.Risk Management provides a disciplined environment for proactive decision making to:Assess continuously what could go wrong (risks).Determine which risks are important to deal with.Formulating strategies for reducing those risks.Implementing the strategies to deal with those risks.Recording and maintaining information for management analysis. Continue reading…

Having identified the risks further work needs to be done to analyse and evaluate the risks. The risk management process is about identifying risks so they can be managed. The process for management involves a cost benefit analysis. What are the consequences of losing an asset or all assets compared to the cost of putting a strategy in place to reduce or nullify that happening.There are some simple and basic strategies that can reduce some risks for little cost.These are: Ensure only the people who have to be directors of your company are appointed as directors. Do not just automatically appoint your spouse. If you have an existing company consider removing your spouse as a director and reviewing your affairs Continue reading…

Risk management deals with the identification of risks, understanding their level of assessment and also prioritizing them so that they can be handled in the right manner. Strategies used to manage include transferring risks to third parties so that they take on the burden of handling them and also accepting a part of the risk consequences to mitigate the and take step to provide a solution to it.Various standards have been set for risk management and these include standards set by the Project Management Institute and the National Institute of Science and Technology as well as ISO Standards. The core activities in risk management are as follows:• Identifying risks and assessing them to find out their impact • Identifying ways Continue reading…

The importance of risk management is often under-estimated by many companies. Resources invested in risk assessment are often considered to be unnecessary, yet businesses are willing to cope with ‘firefighting’ to deal with unfolding uncertainties. A properly formulated risk management (RM) plan can not only protect value, but also entail organized activities to increase economic and shareholder value while fulfilling compliance requirements.Judging by the current financial turmoil and its consequences on regional businesses, the need for RM as never been greater. It is evident that a well-integrated, company-wide risk management does not only protect against emerging risks, but it also helps provide a competitive edge that spreads confidence and enables high performance.In many organizations, the risk management function represents no Continue reading…

Risk management and the railroad go together. Here you have locomotives, and often hundreds of tons of equipment, one mistake and it could ruin your whole day. Further, there are a considerable number of accidents in rail yards, especially with people jumping off the train and twisting their ankles. The injuries and ankle injuries are quite common, along with back injuries for maintenance personnel, and rail yard workers due to the weight of all the equipment.Even a knuckle or coupler, which hooks two railcars together weighs 90 pounds. Everything weighs a lot, and you can see how quickly things can get out of hand, and how dangerous it can be if safety procedures were not followed to the tee. Over Continue reading…

One of the biggest factors when it comes to risk management is the issue of confined space. OSHA for instance realizes that this is a huge problem and they are concerned with restricted entry and exit locations for employees working in hazardous situations where risk of injury or death is concerned. When it comes to the railroad, and those that work on trains, the engine room is just such a space. In fact, on almost all modern day locomotives there are access doors along the entire length of the motor.Still, it is a confined space between the pillars for the doors and working between the engine components. Consider if you will that a modern diesel engine has pistons the size Continue reading…