Understanding and Managing Risk

Is This Course For You?

Business risk is the flip side of business opportunity. Shaping business opportunities is therefore a process of selecting which risks to embrace and design for, which to seek to mitigate or minimize, which to pass on to others (funders, partners, insurers), and which to avoid entirely.

We, therefore, take a constructive view of risk as something that is inherent in business practice, and which needs to be understood qualitatively and where possible quantitatively, and carefully controlled and monitored. We explore a wide variety of risks, including those that arise from the use of digital information technologies; financial activities including banking, capital markets and insurance; organized working at the project and enterprise levels; as well as broader social and environmental impacts. We take a holistic approach focusing on understanding the nature of risks, and entirely avoid prescriptive risk management solutions based on standard methodologies or checklists.

Mathematics is the language of risk, not only in assessing probabilities; mathematics holds the key to digital security. So be prepared: Mathematical ideas will be coming up again and again. You are not expected to master the details, just focus on the principles involved and you will be fine. Again, we are seeking to develop intuition, not prescription. So, this is a course for those who want to think about how to think about and optimise risk within their business domain or scope of activity – whether or not you think of yourself as a risk manager.

What Are The Intended Outcomes?

The course is deliberately broad-ranging in its coverage of topics. It has been designed so that you can sample many different types of risks and develop an intuitive understanding of different risk management approaches. Be prepared to learn about diverse topics such as the use of artificial intelligence for credit analysis, exchange rate hedging using derivatives, securing email systems cryptographically, and modelling the spread of epidemics.