Understanding Risk
Risk is the possibility that an event will occur and adversely affect the achievement of objectives.
Risk Management is, simply put, the process of managing risks.
Festive Season Objectives
As part of our planning for the festive season we set objectives that we would like to achieve over the holiday period. These objectives can range from visiting family, taking a holiday, spending time with loved ones, etc.
Whatever your objectives over the festive season, they will most likely involve travelling and spending money, as well as packing your belongings. We therefore need to set our objectives when engaging in these activities.
We need to set up a budget for the festive season and set up a route plan that we will be travelling, and make sure we pack the necessary gear for the trip. These are therefore activities that will lead use fuel, and vehicle service plans running out while on holiday, • Risk of not packing the appropriate gear for the weather conditions at your travel destination.
Whatever your objectives over the festive season, they will most likely involve travelling and spending money, as well as packing your belongings. We therefore need to set our objectives when engaging in these activities.
We need to set up a budget for the festive season and set up a route plan that we will be travelling, and make sure we pack the necessary gear for the trip. These are therefore activities that will lead use fuel, and vehicle service plans running out while on holiday, • Risk of not packing the appropriate gear for the weather conditions at your travel destination.
The Risk Management Process
We therefore need to conduct the risk management process, which is the process of setting objectives, identifying the risks that will prevent us from achieving our objectives, conducting an assessment of the risk identified, responding to the risk, putting up controls to prevent the risk from occurring and continuously monitoring this set of controls. The process that we need to follow is
Steps to Manage Risks During the Festive Season
- Set Your Objectives: What do you want to achieve?
- Identify Risks: Identify the risks that may prevent you from achieving your objectives.
- Assess the Risks: Consider the likelihood of each risk happening and the impact it would have if it does
- Respond to Risks: Once risks are ranked, choose an appropriate response for each
- Implement Controls: Set up practical controls to prevent the risks:
- Monitor the Controls: Throughout the holiday season, monitor the effectiveness of your controls
Risk management doesn’t mean avoiding fun; it’s about being prepared for the unexpected. By identifying potential risks and setting up effective controls, you can ensure a safe, stress-free holiday season and focus on making the most of your time with family and friends!
Step 1: Setting up the objective
During this process we set up our objective for the festive season, in terms of what we want to do, when, and how much money we are going to budget for the specific activity. This includes timing the trips and routes.
Step 2: Risk/Events Identification
After setting the objectives, identify the risk/events that will prevent us from achieving our objectives. Note that these events can be known and unknown (emergencies) events, and can be anything from bad roads, vehicle tire conditions and service, to time constraints etc.
Step 3: Risk Assessment
During this step we assess the likelihood of the risk occurring. Additionally, we consider the impact that the risk would have should it occur. We rank the risks from highest to lowest in terms of likelihood and impact.
Step 4: Risk Response
During this step we respond to the risk based on the rankings. We either Tolerate, Treat, Terminate or Transfer. For example, we can tolerate the risk of bad roads, treat the risk of running out of fuel or terminate the risk of bad tires.
Step 5: Control Activities
During this step we set up controls to prevent the risk from occurring. The controls should be able to effectively mitigate the risk, e.g. we carry jerry cans of fuel to mitigate the risk of running out fuel.
Step 6: Monitoring the controls
Throughout the festive season we need to monitor whether the controls are working effectively or not, e.g. keep monitoring your budget, or keep monitoring the condition of your tires when travelling.