Risk strategy

The physical feasibility (e.g. technology, capacity or capability) is the primary source of risks. The management’s wrong judgment of the former is the second one.

Risks’ nature

From this premise, the Business Case should univocally establish the “owner” of the solution. Therefore, this declaration cannot be left the orphan .This means that level of the producing organization’ mastery of the technology / production’s process / capacity has to be indicated as one of the key elements on which the strategy has been built.

The importance of strategy

The word comes from Greek, it means “moving an army”.  This implies the following factors, listed by their importance:

1. Create a structure to face a challenge. The elements span from a command’s chain to a well defined target, where all the energies can be aimed.
2. A list of benefits (or avoided damages) which can be bargained against the incoming expenses. This includes a robust metric system for keeping a tally of the expenses and gains.
3. An alternative to the main route is necessary. Whether the intelligence of the “enemy’s willingness” is available or not, other factors like terrain (e.g. logistic conditions) can determine the success of the enterprise.
4. The route and clear rules for moving the bulk of the forces toward a target must be shared and accepted by every stakeholder.
5. A leadership that makes sense of the efforts, and then a war chest that could supply money to cover expenses.

Keeping the chain of command short, notwithstanding the organization’s dimension, more layers of strategy are required. Therefore, the cascading logic is maintained through the “managing by exception” golden rule.

The choices forming the strategy oblige the nature of the risks.

Given the initial statement, there are these deductions:

1)      Lack or incompleteness of strategy is the paramount risk.

2)      The strategy set the guidelines for the Risk analysis.

3)      The alternative route is the main reference to any plan for tackling problems that hamper the outcome’s delivery.

Conclusion

The assumption of responsibility can only be a first step for improving the correct spirit of collaboration. There are several factors that influence this decision. They span from the key-player (the person who has the knowledge) to the brand’s power. The essence of this suggestion lies in the consideration that risks are an integral part of every project; however, the best way to face them is clarity.

Credits

Some concepts have been developed on the ideas and documents generously supplied by “Herding Cats“