You are an employee of a company. The Management Team of your company is developing a manual, for internal use, the purpose of which is to train staff in areas of risk management, so that your company staff can learn to avoid similar failures in risk management procedures. Management is aware that you have recently completed a course in business risk management, and have asked you to prepare a case study report for inclusion in the manual covering one of the following seven cases or another case of your choice:
Company The Risk Event
Fukushima Daiichi – Nuclear plant disaster
BP – Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico
Boeing – Boeing 737 Max aircraft
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) – Failures in corporate governance
Volkswagen – Engine emissions scandal
Samsung – Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recall
Sanlu Group – Melamine-tainted milk scandal
OR a Case Study of your choice*
* If you choose your own case study you must receive prior approval from your Course Presenter based on a brief written proposal (of no more than one A4 page) outlining the risk management lessons that you will cover.
The Project
Management has agreed the following specific tasks after discussions with you:
1. Research the facts of the case. The facts and material for the analysis should be drawn from primary sources such as company and regulator reports wherever possible, and then secondary sources such as press and other reports or published articles by third parties and experts commenting on or analysing the incident. Sources should be fully referenced.
2. You are required to identify at least two, and at most three, risk management issues illustrated by the case. Compare and contrast the way in which these issues were dealt with by the company with material presented in your course or other reference material dealing with the concepts or issues that the case illustrates. In your report you may also assess the effectiveness with which the crisis, created as a result of the failures in risk management, was managed. The analysis of crisis management is in addition to the coverage of the two to three risk management issues.
3. Management believes that the quality of this material will not be judged on the number of concepts or issues illustrated by a particular case study but on how well each concept or issue is illustrated and analysed. Therefore, greater depth in the assessment of the underlying risk management issues (and crisis management). Likewise, the lessons and recommendations need to be specific and relevant to your company.to be of use to your company’s staff
4. Submit the report as specified below.
The Report
Your report should contain the following sections:
1. Executive Summary: A concise review of the report outlining the major findings/issues and conclusions/recommendations. This should be no more than one (1) A4 page. This section is allocated 4 marks.
2. Introduction and Aims: Outline the aims of the report and discuss the approach you have taken to research and develop your case material. Make explicit the criteria that you have used in choosing the risk management issue(s) identified in the case. This should be no more than one to two (1-2) A4 pages. This section is allocated 3 marks.
3. Case Study: This section should include brief facts of the case, and your analysis of the risk and crisis management issues, and why the risk management issues examined in the case occurred. This section should be no more than six (6) pages. This section is allocated 13 marks.
4. Conclusion and Recommendations. Describe the lessons that can be learned by your company from the case, the improvements in governance, risk management processes including control procedures and treatment systems that you consider should have been implemented to address the issues you identified and give the reasons for your recommendations. This section should be no more than four (4) A4 pages. This section is allocated 9 marks.
5. References: List the sources you have consulted for the completion of the report. This section is allocated 1 mark.
Management has specifically asked that the report be no longer than ten (10) to eleven (11) pages (A4 page size, 12 font, one and a half line spacing) excluding the cover page, the reference list and any attachments.
