Review of Risk Maker Risk Taker

Published in InfoRM Magazine
Official publication of the Institute of Risk Management

Review: Risk Maker Risk Taker
A Manager's Guide to Risk

John Fisher MIRM is Principal Consultant with Novare Consulting.
 
As a lecturer and developer of training events in risk management, I am always looking for new approaches to get key messages across to students. Risk Maker Risk Taker, a learning package from Nicholas and Smith provides an excellent introduction to the world of risk management. It consists of a 25 minute DVD presentation, PowerPoint slides and a study guide.

The presentation uses the seven real events to highlight key activities and objectives for each step in a risk management lifecycle. The lifecycle used for the presentation fits comfortably with the approaches of IRM and the UK office of Government Commerce, and there would be minimal difficulty in translating each of the lifecycle steps to these methodologies.

The case studies provide excellent examples of failure in risk management in the private and public sector. All of the examples can be translated to other organisations and are certainly suitable for educating all levels of staff, especially managers. The slides highlight the key points form the DVD material and goes through the whole presentation with supporting text. It comes with transcripts of the key points, references for all the video material and a mini case study, which can be used as exercises to support the overall learning.

Aspects of the teaching material emphasise the most modern thinking and practices about risk management. For example:

  • The greatest risk is to take no risk at all.
  • An understanding of the wider environment is necessary before risk identification takes place.
  • Risk management should be thought of as maximising opportunities, while reducing loss to a minimum level.
  • The benefits of the risk action should exceed the cost of the risk occurring.
  • There should be constant review to ensure that risk is maintained at a tolerable level.

This is an excellent package that can be used on its own as a short introduction to risk management or part of a longer course as an introduction to risk.