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“Too many cooks spoil the broth” goes the Elizabethan poet George Gascoigne’s proverb. Although only written down in circa 1575 it had probably been around for many years beforehand. It is still used today and, far from being archaic, it’s become more and more relevant despite mankind’s predilection towards efficiency and effectiveness. But why?
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The current state of the quality profession is affected by shifting business infrastructures and changing definitions of brand quality.
Businesses need to react and change against external pressures like increased frequency of consumer communications, the availability of big data, expanding regulations and standards, and the expectations to innovate quickly. The quality profession is at risk of losing its effectiveness in the overall business operations if it does not proactively change with the business.
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When the COVID pandemic stuck in March 2020, many organisations struggled with business continuity. Many were caught out without business continuity strategies or plans to overcome the likely business disruption that was brought about by COVID.
Having worked with organisations on their business continuity planning, the key challenge many organisations face in developing their business continuity strategies and plans is the level of business continuity planning and effort required. Many business continuity consultants have adopted the ISO 22301 Business continuity management systems — Requirements approach and have unfortunately over-engineered the approach as a one-size-fits-all.
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The five in a 5S workplace organizational and housekeeping methodology refers to five steps – sort, set in order, shine, standardize and sustain. Safety should be the honorary sixth “S.
Many manufacturing facilities have opted to follow the path towards a “5S” workplace organizational and housekeeping methodology as part of continuous improvement or lean manufacturing processes. The term refers to five steps – sort, set in order, shine, standardize and sustain – that are also sometimes known as the five pillars of a visual workplace.
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This article is the seventh of fourteen parts to our risk management series. The series will be taking a look at the risk management guidelines under the ISO 31000 Standard to help you better understand them and how they relate to your own risk management activities. In doing so, we’ll be walking through the core aspects of the Standard and giving you practical guidance on how to implement it. [Read more…]
In CERM Risk Insights #354 I discussed the risk management study of local governments in New Zealand. One of the cases in the study was Environment Canterbury Regional Council. The regional council’s focus and the increasing concerns about environmental risks by both the public and private sector represents a challenge to the common approach used by most of the New Zealand local governments, ISO 31000:2018 and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) more generally. This piece discusses this challenge to ISO 31000:2018 and its implications.
[Read more…]In project management we can’t always be in control of the environment around us. We can only forecast rather than predict risk and despite our ‘reasonable’ or even ‘best’ efforts to mitigate risk; shit happens and emergencies ensue! It’s not just physical emergencies but also those related to time and cost; remember overbudget or late projects can create an emergency for shareholders and stakeholders alike.
Maybe it’s because we tend to look at the ‘big risks’ or the ‘top ten’ after some semiquantitative assessment but then fail to consider that risks can change with time as more information becomes available. Or, maybe it is because only those risks that can be clearly defined and are ‘likely’ are communicated to the eyes and ears on the ground. Those low probability, high impact risks can tend to slip under any risk radar.
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Greg and Fred discuss keeping up professionally, which is a requirement these days to continue to be marketable.
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āTrustā in AI decision-making is one of the most important public policy challenges facing the world. Some pundits place this on the same level as climate change and pandemics.
āTrustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) can bring many benefits, such as better healthcare, safer and cleaner transport, more efficient manufacturing, and cheaper and more sustainable energy.ā EU Communications [Read more…]
The majority of companies today outsource a major portion (up to 60-70%) of their work scope to subcontractors. As a result, the subcontractors become a risk to your project because you have no direct control over them. For example, if they start to slip their schedule you cannot direct them to put more assets on the job to pull the schedule back. The other risk that is not obvious is that posed by your subcontractors major vendors or subcontractors. To illustrate this point, this article describes a story that I was personally involved in.
Greg and Fred discuss form vs. function decision making.
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Based on my career experience as a project manager, I have observed that promotions can come quicker in a small company compared to a large one. This is especially true after you have gained several years’ experience. For some reason, many large companies are slow in giving promotions unless you are a rising star. If you are not a rising start and want to get a promotion, I suggest you look for opportunities in small companies to get the title you want (e.g., project manager).
Once you have the title, no one can take it away which means after several years’ experience in a small company you have a much better chance of getting the same position but with more responsibility and pay in a large company. The challenge is-do you have the right stuff to succeed in a small company?
[Read more…]Criticality Map, a strategic top-down analytical tool that I developed and used, is vital for risk management, assurance mapping, and regulatory compliance. It is a great simplified tool for effectively guiding management action and resource allocation and as a sanity check.
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Understanding context is essential for making smart, risk-based decisions and solving tough problems.
Understanding context is important to ensure you are correctly solving the right problem. Understanding context helps you understand the root cause of the problem and the key stakeholders. It helps you develop effective solutions. It helps you define your assumptions and biases. [Read more…]
Strategic alliances are a vital tool to driving growth by enabling access to external capabilities. They are collaborations, partnerships, or joint ventures whereby organisations, or partners, work together for a common purpose to achieve a common business benefit or purpose.
As much as strategic alliances are an important tool to drive growth and deliver needed capabilities, they are not without their challenges and risks.
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