Articles on Project Risk Management

Managing Risks In A Recession

Back in 2008 I gave a talk just around the time that the Northern Rock Bank went bust.  At that time it didn’t seem that the damage would spread much beyond this bank and the unfortunate mortgage holders and depositors.  Then cam Lehman Brothers and suddenly we went from a small localised problem to a global downturn.  The resulting change means that for the first time in over a decade funding is becoming harder to secure.  This article  explains three key changes you need to make to ensure that you survive the economic downturn.

Assessing Risk – The Buck Stops With You

I wrote this in the aftermath of the Bernie Madoff Scandal, when it was becoming clear that dozens of people had lost everything because they were willing to invest in someone with a deal that was so good that they didn’t bother to perform any due diligence before parting with their hard-earned cash.

Why Risk Management?

This short piece is a timely reminder why risk management is so important.  It would seem, given the implosion of the economy, a lesson that too many people have forgotten in the financial industry.  If they have forgotten – and it’s their primary job to manage risk – just imagine how few people in project management consider risks.

Famous risk takers

I like to make it easy for people to see risks that are around them all the time, so that they become better at spotting and defusing risky situations.  That got me thinking about people who have taken big risks in their lives.  Here are a few that I think are worth mentioning:

  • Ben Johnson
  • Donald Trump
  • Nick Leeson
  • Christophe Columbus

For every one of these famous risk takers there is a lessons that we can learn from them.  It’s not always that we must take risks though:

  • From Johnson, it’s that you need to weigh up all of the costs and possible consequences of failure;
  • From Leeson, it’s that sometimes you have to accept that you made a mistake and get help, not put even more at risk;
  • From Trump, it’s that you can recover from even huge failures if you keep your wits about you;
  • From Columbus, it’s that by taking calculated risks you can achieve success, glory and riches beyond your wildest dreams.