Housing in Southern Africa March 2015

Infrastructure & Mixed Use

A urecon South Africa’s Opera- tional andProject RiskManage- ment team won the award for ‘Best Risk Consultancy’ at the 2014 annual Institute of Risk Management South Africa (IRMSA) Awards. Accord- ing to Simon van Wyk from Aurecon, “This achievement highlights Aure- con’s aptitude for providing in-depth solutions to the complex project risks that our clients face.” There are a number of risks, in- cluding disaster risk, financial risk, environmental risk and operational risk, that need to be assessed and managed before a project can com- mence, and none of these risks should be viewed in a ‘silo’. Several of Aurecon’s clients have been factoring risk assessment and management into their project costs during the concept phase of projects for many years. Working with ‘risk mature’ clients gives risk consul- tants the advantage of not having to justify methodologies and with what might appear to be ‘over-analysis’ of project risks. With clients who have not worked with risk management consultants, the risk assessment pro- Reducing the risk

While many companies understand that risk management brings value to a project, there’s often still a learning curve that needs to be overcome in order to get everyone on board. It is important to understand the objectives and value of including risk management during the design and execution phases of a project.

number of clients realise that not only their projects, but their entire business philosophy, needs to be risk averse. In light of this, businesses are adopting a risk-centric business philosophy which entails proactive measures to harness opportunities through sound principles of risk management. “Instead of hop-

cess is not always the easiest learning curve. “The nature of risk manage- ment is an in-depth analysis to inform decision-making and ensuring that our clients understand the outputs of these robust and detailed analysis methodologies is paramount.” Aurecon uses several method- ologies and tools that are globally

accepted to assess and evaluate poten- tial risks. For sizeable CAPEX projects, this is centred on determin- ing the potential like- lihood, consequence and predicted cost

‘Partnering with an experienced risk consultant is key to ensuring a project’s success,’

ing for the best, leading companies know tha t they need to measure their risks in each phase of the project life cycle. This type

of preparation leads to progressive and informed decision-making,” adds van Wyk. “All of the standards, systems and techniques can be in place, but without the years of experience in risk management, none of these will add the kind of value that a client needs from an internationally leading risk management team. Partnering with an experienced risk consultant is key to ensuring a project succeeds,” concludes van Wyk. ■

that risk may pose to a project’s success viz. planning appropriate contingency within the allocated CAPEX budget. “Many clients operate in environ- ments that change at a quick pace and one of the key challenges that a risk management solution needs to address is the level of uncertainty that clients face,” says van Wyk. He points out that instead of seeing risk management as a ‘nice to have’ on projects, an increasing

March 2015