The Risk Doctor: Risk Management Basics

In this course, Dr David Hillson, The Risk Doctor, answers a series of questions on risk management. The course is in a modular format, broken down question by question, with concepts explained effectively and concisely. Risk management can be likened to the breaks on a racing car: the better the breaks, the faster you know you can go, and the same can be applied to a business.

Known globally as The Risk Doctor, Dr David Hillson is a thought-leader and expert practitioner who speaks and writes widely on risk management. David has a well-deserved reputation as an excellent speaker and presenter on risk. His talks blend thought-leadership with practical application, presented in an accessible style that combines clarity with humour, guided by the Risk Doctor motto: “Understand profoundly so you can explain simply”.

For over thirty years, David has advised major organisations, governments and charities in more than fifty countries on how to create value from risk using applied risk-based thinking, and his wisdom and insights are in high demand. His consultancy clients include major organisations in construction, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, transport, fast-moving consumer goods, energy, IT, defence and government. David also leads the team at The Risk Doctor Partnership, based on his worldwide network with like-minded professional risk experts.

David has written eleven major books on risk, and contributed to several others, as well as writing many papers, articles and briefings. He has developed significant innovations that are now widely accepted as best practice including inclusion of proactive opportunity management in the risk process. His recent work has clarified the softer aspects of risk, including ground-breaking practical approaches to risk attitude, risk appetite and risk culture, and he has also developed a scaleable project risk methodology.

Dr Hillson has received many awards in recognition of his ground-breaking work in risk management. For example, he was named Risk Personality of the Year in 2010-2011 by the Institute of Risk Management (IRM). He was the first recipient of this award, given to honour the individual who has made a significant global contribution to improving risk management knowledge, whose experience and expertise enables them to effectively promote the message of strong risk management, and who provides inspiration to their peers in the risk profession. David has also been recognised as a Chartered Fellow of IRM.

David Hillson is an active member of the global Project Management Institute (PMI® ), where he is recognized as a risk thought-leader, and he has received multiple awards including the PMI Fellow Award (2010). He was Vice Chair for the PMBOK® Guide-Sixth Edition update project, and specifically responsible for the risk chapter. David was on the Steering Group for the update of the PMI-RMP certification, and he was a core author for the PMI Practice Standard for Project Risk Management. David became an Honorary Fellow of the UK Association for Project Management (APM) in 2008, marking his contribution to developing the discipline of project risk management. He is a past Chairman of the APM Specific Interest Group (SIG) on Risk Management, and he has co-edited three major risk guides for APM. David was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in 2007 to contribute to its Risk Commission. He led the RSA Fellows project on societal attitudes to failure, and is editor of The Failure Files. He is also a Chartered Fellow with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), reflecting his broad interest in topics beyond his own speciality of risk management.