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BROADLEAF CAPITAL INTERNATIONAL PTY LTD
ABN 24 054 021 117

23 Bettowynd Road
Pymble
NSW 2073
Australia

www.Broadleaf.com.au

Tel:
+61 2 9488 8477
Mobile: +61 419 433 184
Fax:
+ 61 2 9488 9685
Cooper@Broadleaf.com.au

Specialists in Strategic, Enterprise and Project Risk Management

TUTORIAL NOTES: STARTING OUT WITH RISK MANAGEMENT
If you are interested in developing yourrisk management practices in general or need to carry out a
focussed exercise on a specific project or business venture, you will find a few pointers here. No one
could set down one set of guidelines that would suit every need, but Broadleaf has sufficient
experience of a wide range of applications to be able to point out common pitfalls and identify issues
you need to take into account.
Don'tassume this is a comprehensive set of instructions. It is simply intended as an indication of the
factors you should be thinking about. We would be happy to discuss particular requirements in detail
if you get in touch. If you are interested in developing an in-house risk management capability or you
have already started on this path, we can help you develop, refine and optimise that capability.1

Understanding Risks

Like most processes, risk management can be applied at various levels of sophistication. In its
simplest form it focuses on identifying and describing risks and then establishing priorities among
them. Just being able to describe the risks you face and be clear on which are the most important can
be a big step forward. Exactly how you go about achieving this willdepend on the business you are
in and the culture of your organisation. Here are a few points to bear in mind.
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Understand the context. Both in our own work and as part of our contribution to the
Australian/New Zealand Standard for Risk Management, AS/NZS 4630, we have found it
imperative to understand the context in which risks are to be managed. This might seem so
obvious that itdoesn't need to be mentioned but if you fail to ensure that everyone involved has
a common view of what will constitute success and how you can measure the impacts of risks
on that success then the whole process can fall apart.
The way the context is described will depend on the circumstances of a particular
implementation but it will generally take in at least:
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the scope and objectives of theproject or operation you are concerned with;
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a description of the stakeholders you need to take into account; and,
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criteria for measuring the impacts of risks.
All of this might not be trivial but it is straight forward if you have a clear plan for what your
project or business is trying to achieve. Often risk management runs into trouble because the
plans for the business are informalor even absent. If you find yourself in this situation, start
thinking about risks to your overall business represented by the processes you operate. Your
problems may be deeper than you had feared.

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Plan risk identification and assessment. Risk identification and assessment are often given a
lot less attention than they need to make the process cost-effective. To be successful, theywill

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Tutorial: Starting Out

usually involve a group of people for something between a few hours and a few days, a
substantial investment of effort. This investment can pay off many times over but without
adequate preparation and planning there is a danger of it being wasted.Identification and assessment will not just happen by themselves. It is important to choose
methods that suit your organisation and personnel, and plan how they are implemented as a
small but significant project with well defined deliverables.
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Close the loop with actions and monitoring. Many risk assessments end in a report that sits
on a shelf gathering dust. To avoid the assessment...