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Introduction and Description:

The term “risk management” has different meanings. One distinction is ‘pure risk’ vs. ‘speculative risk’. Pure risk concerns systems or operations and answers the questions: ‘What can go wrong?’ and ‘What action should be taken?’ Speculative risk concerns financial risk management (usually separate from any process or operation.) This course is primarily concerned with pure risk management in a business environment, i.e. making decisions in the face of uncertainty. Classic methods from risk assessment and risk evaluation are first covered and then applied.

Organizational decision-making is steeped in uncertainty:  uncertainty from the outside environment, uncertainty in values and objectives, and uncertainty in the cost and effectiveness of organizational strategies and actions. Many scientists, engineers, and managers respond by denying its existence (i.e. modeling uncertainty through expected values and treating the problem deterministically) or by including its consideration only on a qualitative basis at the end of the decision making process. This course is designed to improve your skill in recognizing, confronting, and modeling uncertainty within a decision making process. It covers risk assessment, risk evaluation, and risk communication.

Under risk assessment, it covers the integration of diverse sources of information (i.e. qualitative and quantitative, objective and subjective) so as to utilize all available knowledge when modeling uncertainty. Under risk evaluation, it teaches you how to manage uncertainty through action responses such as exposure avoidance, risk prevention or reduction, and contingency planning. Under risk communication, it covers terminology and psychological factors.

The course emphasizes a normative and quantitative approach to operations risk management including: decision trees, multi-attribute choice, and scoring models. Coverage also includes material from behavioral decision-making and cognitive psychology. The course assumes an introductory understanding of probability and statistics.

Teaching Pedagogy:

Real-world examples, live demonstrations, in-class experiments, and highly interactive class discussions of readings and cases comprise the primary learning vehicles for this course.

Course Objectives:

1. Understand the concept of Risk Management in a business environment.

2. Understand the various tools available for assessing, communicating, and managing risk.

3. Develop the ability to apply quantitative risk management and decision-making techniques to your own work/company

Course Materials:

• Making Hard Decisions with DecisionTools, by R.T. Clemen and T. Reilly (includes Palisade Decision Suite Software), 2004, Cengage Learning (Duxbury Press), ISBN 0495 015083—required text.

• Palisade DecisionTools software (comes with text)

• Laptop computer to work software problems in class

Audience:

Engineers, scientists, technical managers, project managers, and others who want to manage risk

Prerequisites:

A college degree and some basic familiarity with statistics are desirable.

Please Note: Attendee will be required to purchase the text book on their own.

Agenda:

Day 1

• Introduction

• Risk Definitions

• Probability Review

• Decision Trees

• Value of Information

Day 2

• Multi-Attribute Choice and Scoring Models

• Risk Management Activities

• Risk Aversion and Risk Evaluation Modeling

• Risk Communication

• Course Wrap-Up

Instructor Bio:

Dr. Monat is a Director and Adjunct Professor in the Corporate and Professional Education Department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, where he teaches courses in Operations Risk Management, Productivity Management, Operations Management, and Project Management. Dr. Monat has both management and teaching experience in the medical device, separations, food & beverage, consulting, and environmental industries, having served as President of Harvard Clinical Technology, President of Business Growth Specialists, Inc., as Sr. Vice-President of Pall Corporation, and in a variety of positions for Koch Membrane Systems, Inc. Dr. Monat’s current research interests include quality in both service and manufacturing environments, corporate productivity, employee performance metrics, business applications of logistic regression, and operations risk analysis. He has a B.S. in Aerospace and Mechanical Sciences from Princeton, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Stanford.

Decision (Run/Cancel) Date for  this Course is Friday, March 28, 2008

Course Fee Schedule:

On-line Registration and Payment

This course has been cancelled.  If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the IEEE office at 781-245-5405.

Copyright © 2008 IEEE Boston Section. All rights reserved.
Maintained by R M Stelting

Updated Thursday April 03, 2008