Construction World March 2015

Pioneering excellence in RISK MANAGEMENT

Aurecon South Africa’s operational and project risk management team recently won the award for ‘Best Risk Consultancy’ at the 2014 annual Institute of Risk Management South Africa (IRMSA) Awards. At the same event in 2013, Aurecon was also the category winner in the ‘Environmental Initiative’ category and runner-up in the ‘Mining, Resources, Construction, Engineering and Related Services’ category.

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A holistic understanding There are a number of risks, including disaster risk, financial risk, environmental risk and operational risk, that need to be assessed and managed before a project can commence, and none of these risks should be viewed in a ‘silo’. Several of Aurecon’s clients have been factoring risk assessment and management into their project costs during the concept phase of projects for many years, so working with these types of ‘risk mature’ clients gives risk consultants the advantage of not having to justify methodologies and what might appear to be ‘over-analysis’ of project risks. With clients who haven’t always been working with risk management consultants, tools and processes before, however, the risk assessment process is not always the easiest learning curve.

“These achievements highlight Aurecon’s aptitude for providing in-depth solutions to the complex project risks that our clients

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face,” says Simon van Wyk, an expert in risk management at Aurecon, who is also an Associate Member of IRMSA, a Corporate Member of the Disaster Management Insti- tute of Southern Africa (DMISA), as well as a Professional Natural Scientist with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Profes- sions (SACNASP). “Whilemany companies understand that risk management brings value to a project, there’s often still a learning curve that needs to be overcome in order to get everyone on board with understanding the objectives and the true value add – especially the vital importance of including risk management during the design and execution phases of a project,” believes Van Wyk.

Simon van Wyk, an expert in risk management at Aurecon.

CONSTRUCTION WORLD MARCH 2015