Clouds of Vagueness
‘best practice’
More for your money
I promised to review the Infrastructure Risk Group report on Managing Cost Risk & Uncertainty In Infrastructure Projects, a report which was launched last month at the ICE with the sponsorship of the IRM. The report is a result of work undertaken as part of the Infrastructure UK investigation of the high cost of infrastructure projects. […]
Risk appetite – the official definition
Earlier this week I attended a grand occasion – the launch of the Infrastructure Risk Group’s report on Managing Cost and Uncertainty in Infrastructure Projects. This was held at the Institution of Civil Engineers, sponsored by the IRM, and the endorsements were provided by Andrew Wolstenholme, boss of Crossrail, Lord Deighton, the Treasury Commercial Secretary […]
Risk in NEC3
I’ve been doing some much-needed professional development by finally getting properly up to speed on NEC3. This is what was formerly known as the New Engineering Contract – like BAA the letters don’t stand for anything anymore – which was designed to simplify the way construction projects were commissioned and managed. NEC3 is the most […]
What you’ve been waiting for
Matthew Leitch asked me to summarise my last two posts about risk definitions. I said it would take 5 minutes, but as I scoped it out I realised that a lot was involved to provide a proper explanation. Eventually I developed Prezi presentation with a voiceover to cover the explanations. It’s very boring so I’m […]
Pedant’s Corner (1)
In principle I’m a great fan of standards for risk management. Given the problems we have, there is a very attractive idea that conceptually lucid, clearly written standards can help us find the way forward. In reality the large range of standards (ISO 31000, BS 31100, superseded A/NZ documents, etc) and quasi standards (PRAM, MoR/P3M3, […]
Resilience (Part 2): aircraft carriers on the lawn
In the previous article I explored resilience in the way it is described in the WEF global risk report. It was hard to find much that distinguished it from a conventional risk management approach – listing actions against risks – apart from: a recognition that things look different at different scales – the global uncertainty […]
We need to talk
I’m getting sidetracked trying to write an article on resilience. One of the hares I’ve chased is Robert Kaplan’s and Anette Mikes’ discussion of three types of risk. This is because it is asserted by the World Economic Forum’s risk report to recommend resilience as the correct approach to long-term global risks. Turns out it […]
Proud to be a war quant
I’ve just re-read Douglas W Hubbard’s The Failure of Risk Management. It’s an odd book in that while I agree with most of what’s in it, I’m not particularly convinced by the overall story suggested by the subtitle: Why It’s Broken and How to Fix It. Hubbard’s theme is that we do not do enough, […]
Fragility management
I reviewed Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book Antifragility with the promise to look separately at what the lessons might be for organisational risk management. The answer is quite a bit, and this article will just be an initial high level view. The thinking is developed pretty uncritically from the book. There will be plenty of scope […]
Where did the BBC go wrong?
It is a truth universally acknowledged that having some kind of ‘best practice’ (enterprise) risk management system will keep you out of trouble. Well, it is if you read the standard risk management stuff, books on reputational risk management and the like. But as the BBC’s reputation stands in tatters it’s worth asking what went wrong. Is it the […]
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