Risk assessments: - At the organization level- Design Functions- Design of Architect, Interior designing, and Design of MEP

Activities for Risk assessment

The ultimate objective of risk assessment in design functions is to identify such risk occurrences, analyse these, and initiate countermeasures for preventing risks.

The activities include

i. Designate Risks Assessment team (CFT-Cross-functional team)

ii. Identify aspects that can contribute to organization-level risk mentioned

iii. Design risk assessment templates for the organization-level risk.

iv. Software programming of risk templates.  

v. Populating the “organization level Risks” template by the design functions in consultation with CFT

1.1 Organisation-level risks – Developing risk assessment templates

 The design of the risk template ought to be comprehensive and should capture the following in a document.

i)Risk statements developed by each Head of Department-HOD of the design functions i. e. Chief Architect or & Chief Interior designer or & Chief MEP engineer as applicable vis a vis the aspects such as:

·       End customer’s changing needs  

·       Competitor’s offerings

·       Statutory policies

·       Changes in economic, political, and social environments

·       IT (Hardware, software, network) outages impacting design delivery, etc.

ii) Thereafter, each risk statement is to be analyzed to capture the likely adverse impact of each risk on the organization

iii) After analysis of impact, HODs need to capture (in the same template) countermeasures, Timelines for implementation & responsibility for implementing countermeasures. This may require dialoguing/interfacing with HOD of other functions like sales, projects, purchases, and contracts, Finance & legal, IT, etc.

iv) Top management comments on risk impact and countermeasures identified in the template.

iii)Accordingly, categorizing the risk as High or medium, or low

1.2 Activities that can adversely impact business

§  Inappropriate levels /positions of CFT members vis-à-vis “Design functions” and consequent inadequate skills for comprehending organization risks   

§  Inadequate participation by a nominated member of “Design functions”

             in deliberation meetings of CFT for identifying organization risks.

§  Inappropriate software development and workflow of “organization level risks” template (standard for all functions) making risk capturing cumbersome and inefficient 

§  Non-comprehensive review by CFT of all aspects vis-à-vis “Design functions -” that can contribute to Organisation risks in the Risk template resulting in inaccurate/non-comprehensive capturing of the following: *

§  Risk statements

§  Risk Analysis and implications

·       Inaccurate classification by CFT of risk at the organization level (High, Medium, or Low) vis-à-vis “Design functions” due to improper risk analysis and implications *

·       Inadequate time commitment by top management to review Risk template developed by CFT vis-à-vis “Design functions” and hence non-comprehensive or not accurate capturing of countermeasures *

·       Non-periodic/non-timely review of previously populated risk template in “Design functions to incorporate changes in business environments like customer demands, statutory changes, economy changes, and so on *

The above-listed activities, that are marked* reflect activities that can have adverse statutory implications.

Handbook of the author 

A template illustrating an approach for classifying risks as High, Medium, or Low at the organization level is included in chapter 10 (annex 13C) in the handbook of the author and titled” ETHICS in the real estate and hospitality industry, Volume 1- Architectural, Interior design, and MEP services “