management – Global Risk Guard. Resources for Risk Professionals

[ReviewAZON asin=”0787965189″]Managing Risk in Organizations offers a proven framework for handling risks across all types of organizations. In this comprehensive resource, David Frame— a leading expert in risk management— examines the risks routinely encountered in business, offers prescriptions to assess the effects of various risks, and shows how to develop effective strategies to cope with risks. In addition, the book is filled with practical tools and techniques used by professional risk practitioners that can be readily applied by project managers, financial managers, and any manager or consultant who deals with risk within an organization. Managing Risk in Organizations is filled with illustrative case studies and

Outlines the various types of riskpure, operational, project, technical, business, and political
Reveals what risk management can and cannot accomplish
Shows how to organize risk management efforts to conduct risk assessments, manage crises, and recover from disasters
Includes a systematic risk management processrisk management planning, risk identification, qualitative impact analysis, quantitative impact analysis, risk response planning, and monitoring control
Provides quantitative and qualitative tools to identify and handle risks

This much-needed book will enable organizations to take risk seriously and act proactively.

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Books

January 14 GRG

Integrating Corporate Risk Management

[ReviewAZON asin=”158799061X”]Integrating Corporate Risk Management, by Prakash Shimpi and several colleagues at the Swiss Reinsurance Company, is a decidedly forward-thinking and practical resource for any manager seeking innovative ways to boost shareholder return. Based on the increasingly harmonious relationship between corporate finance, risk management, and insurance, it shows how concepts from each discipline can be effectively combined for superior overall results. The first section explains why a solid risk-management strategy is critical to earnings growth and corporate reputation–“because it reduces a firm’s chances of experiencing financial distress and shields it against events that might thwart or distort its agenda”–and how a tightly coordinated effort can produce maximum payoff with minimal cost. The second section lays out specific products and procedures from both the insurance and capital markets (such as double-trigger options and credit derivatives) that, taken together, provide “a formidable addition to the conventional techniques currently employed.” The final part looks at future prospects and challenges in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, and ways that companies can prepare for this new environment. In all, the total presents a surprisingly accessible framework that could certainly help committed readers decrease their corporate risk and increase their bottom line. —Howard Rothman[/ReviewAZON]

Books

January 14 GRG

Effective Risk Management: Some Keys to Success

[ReviewAZON asin=”1563473836″]Risk management is an important skill that can be applied to a wide variety of projects. In an era of downsizing, consolidation, shrinking budgets, increasing technological sophistication, and shorter development times, risk management can provide valuable insights to help key project personnel plan for risks, alert them of potential risk issues, analyze these issues, and develop, implement, and monitor plans to address the issues long before the issues surface as problems and adversely project cost, performance, and schedule.

This important new text defines the steps to effective risk management and helps the reader create a viable risk management process and implement it on their specific project. It will also allow you to better evaluate an existing risk management process, find some of the shortfalls, and develop and implement needed enhancements.

The book helps fill a void that exists in the project risk management literature on desirable risk management process characteristics and considerations for tailoring and implementing the process on a particular project. The material illustrates attributes and practices of sound risk management that can readily be used by both project management and technical practitioners, as well as others that are less familiar with the subject.

Conrow presents more than 200 lessons learned and clearly stated tips that will help you successfully implement risk management, including things to do and traps to avoid, taken from his extensive experience working on a wide variety of projects over 20 years. This includes work performed as a risk management specialist and consultant on Air Force, Army, Navy, DoD, NASA, other government organization, and commercial projects; on hardware-intensive, software-intensive, and mixed projects, with life cycle dollar ranges from several million dollars to many billion dollars. Examples of erroneous risk management practices are given, along with insights to help the reader understand why the practice is flawed and improve their ability to detect other issues that may also be problematic.

Includes 200+ Tips for Sound Project Risk Management

Author: Dr. Edmund H. Conrow CMC, CPCM, PMP, email info@risk-services.com.[/ReviewAZON]

Books

January 14 GRG

Risk and Decision Analysis in Projects (Cases in project and program management series)

[ReviewAZON asin=”1880410281″]Is there anything more important to the success of a project than making good decisions? This skill is certainly at or near the top of the list. Yet, few of us have had formal training in decision making. Decision analysis is the discipline that helps people choose wisely under conditions of uncertainty. This book introduces risk and decision analysis applied to project management. Probability is the language of uncertainty. Fortunately, a few basic concepts in probability and statistics go a long way toward making better decisions. The evaluation calculations are straightforward, and many everyday problems can be solved with a handheld calculator. Schuyler also explains and demystifies key concepts and techniques, including expected value, optimal decision policy, decision trees, the value of information, Monte Carlo simulation, probabilistic techniques, modeling techniques, judgments and biases, utility and multi-criteria decisions, and stochastic variance.

Some of Schuyler’s tried-and-true tips include:

-The single-point estimate is almost always wrong, so that it is always better to express judgments as ranges. A probability distribution completely expresses someone’s judgment about the likelihood of values within the range.

-We often need a single-value cost or other assessment, and the expected value (mean) of the distribution is the only unbiased predictor. Expected value is the probability-weighted average, and this statistical idea is the cornerstone of decision analysis.

-Some decisions are easy, perhaps aided by quick decision tree calculations on the back of an envelope. Decision dilemmas typically involve risky outcomes, many factors, and the best alternatives having comparable value. We only need analysis sufficient to confidently identify the best alternative. As soon as you know what to do, stop the analysis!

-Be alert to ways to beneficially change project risks. We can often eliminate, avoid, transfer, or mitigate threats in some way. Get to know the people who make their living helping managers sidestep risk. They include insurance agents, partners, turnkey contractors, accountants, trainers, and safety personnel.[/ReviewAZON]