Risk aversion !!

After the global instability that came up with the financial crisis, the  expression “risk management” became part of corporations' everyday life. Indeed, the economic downturn taught important lessons to executives. However, another phenomenon may hinder businesses: risk aversion. 

According to Pedro Bicudo, shareholder-director of TGT Consult, CIOs and other professionals in the IT market are always striving to completely eliminate all risks. “Seeking zero risk isn't a wise approach. We must consider the level of risk that the company runs and to what extent quitting it may affect its business”.
 

One example can be a company that, on an impulse to avoid virus and malware, simply blocks instant message programs, which today are considered productivity tools. In the past, some other indispensable tools such as e-mail and internet would be forbidden as well. Such attitude may lead a company's projects to delay and its travelling and phone call expenses to rocket up. Eliminating a risk may eventually result in loss.
 

Bicudo states that the IT market should follow the same management pattern of financial, credit and  project risks. In these  segments, risks are carefully considered through defined measurements that evaluate which of them is worth taking in order to improve business performance.
 

TGT Consult advises professionals to follow some steps to analyse and deal with risks:
 

1- Approach
A company must decide which approaches can be used and which methodology best fits a determined situation or project. It's the methodology that describes the characteristics of a project risk.
 

2- Information
The basis for a correct identification of risks lies in the projects' information from three sources: vision of a project's resources, advancement documentation and customers.
 

3- Probabilities and impacts
Once a risk is identified, its impacts and probabilities of occurrence have to be analysed, leading to an action plan.
 

4- Continuity
Though a company's processes do not run separately, its several departments have different impacts and threats in front of each risk. Ongoing monitoring is required in order to reach an ideal risk management.