The course is the result of collaboration between The Open University and Rolls-Royce PLC. This collaboration has ensured that contemporary theories about risk management are explored within the context of an international company that is required to apply these theories in its business practices.

Recent decades have seen an array of news stories where risk management failings have undermined an organisation and dented the credibility of its management. These failings have led to the demise of some companies – for example Lehman Brothers, World Com and Enron. Worse than this in many instances the failings have resulted in deaths and injuries – as with the Piper Alpha oil platform disaster in the North Sea in 1988 or the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in 2010.

Successful organisations embed a culture of risk management in all areas of their activities. To achieve this requires effective and practical risk management education. The course particularly benefits all those engaged as risk managers, those seeking to develop their risk management capabilities and those, like board members, who have ultimate responsibility for risks within their organisations. Additionally all those with, or seeking, a career in management in any organisation will benefit from the understanding of risks and how to manage them.

This eight-session course examines how to practise good risk analysis and then apply successful processes to manage it. The course is supported by case studies and audio-visual materials to help explain the varied and often complex risk management practices employed at Rolls-Royce and widely elsewhere.

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• identify and understand the risks faced by organisations
• know how to assess and measure the impact of risks on organisations
• understand the different ways that risks can be managed or mitigated
• understand how organisations can apply ‘Enterprise Risk Management’
• understand the importance of effective monitoring and reporting of risks.