Risk Management Plan for GEO Events Communication Project Analysis

This report details a project risk management plan developed for the GEO Events Communication Plan, specifically focusing on the Clay Oven restaurant's publicity event in Winnipeg. The plan encompasses a comprehensive approach, including project overview, risk management plan, risk response plan, and risk identification and assessment. The report outlines the rationale for risk management, emphasizing the need to identify and mitigate potential threats such as food safety, cleanliness, and financial risks. It describes the risk management processes, responsibilities of key stakeholders (project manager, risk manager, and team members), and the utilization of a risk threshold to measure uncertainty and impact. Furthermore, the report includes risk finances, evaluation, and a probability/impact matrix to assess the likelihood and severity of identified risks. Finally, it proposes a risk response plan with strategies to avoid, mitigate, and transfer risks, ensuring the project's success and the protection of the restaurant's brand image.

Running head: PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN: GEO EVENTS
COMMUNICATION PLAN DOCUMENT
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PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN: GEO EVENTS COMMUNICATION PLAN
DOCUMENT
[Author]
[Institution]

Table of content
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Project Overview.........................................................................................................................4
Risk Management Plan................................................................................................................4
Risk Response Plan......................................................................................................................9
Risk Identification and Assessment...........................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Risk management refers to the process of searching potential risks, assessing and
controlling them for avoiding any problem. The purpose of risk management is to assure
uncertainty does not prevent the attempt from the business objectives. There are two types of
events: negative and positive. Adverse events are considered as risks whereas positive events are
called as opportunities. Effective strategies result to manage the threats includes avoiding,
reducing, transferring and retaining them. Proper risk management plan helps in maintaining and
handling the threats appropriately for preventing delay or any loss to the project or processes
(Pritchard &PMP, 2014). For the current study, GEO Events Communication plan is taken into
consideration. With respect to this, the file includes project overview, risk management plan, risk
response plan and risk identification and assessment.
Project Overview
The project is based on the Project Clay Oven Publicity Event. In this, Clay Oven is the
sponsor of the project. Clay Oven is one of the successful restaurants in Canada which was
opened in 2013. The cited food restaurant wants to expand its business by opening it in
Winnipeg, an IT hub of Canada. With the help of effective marketing strategy, the firm can
enhance its brand image among the customers of Winnipeg (Mudambi & et.al., 2017). While
developing any project, it is also necessary to conduct risk management and response plan for
identifying the possible threats for avoiding any delay or loss to the company. The current
project is based on risk management plan of the Clay Oven project for determining the potential
risks and their solutions. While opening a new venture, it is necessary to take care of certain
things for avoiding the threat. While conducting marketing events, the firm can face the risk of
showing fake information for grabbing the attention of the people. Along with this, the risk of
food safety, cleanliness, fire safety and many more. For handling such problems and making the
project a successful event, it is necessary to have adequate risk management plan (Kerzner
&Kerzner, 2017).

Risk Management Plan
Rationale: Clay Oven is conducting publicity event for informing people about its fourth new
restaurant in Winnipeg. There are some risks or problems which company can face while
implementing the program for accomplishing the objectives. Any issue can result to affect the
brand image of the restaurant and make customers switch. In context to this, risk management
plan will help the organization in handling the issues efficiently and implementing the right
solutions. The critical project will inform the company about the present hazards and support it
in selecting the most appropriate solution. Risk management plan will help firmly in identifying
the possible threats like the risk of fire, cleanliness, food quality, services, etc. which can affect
the results of the program. The plan will help in resolving the issues on time for avoiding any
loss or failure. Along with this, risk management plan will help aware team members of the
project to monitor each process time to time for preventing any problem at the time of execution
or implementation (Wilhite, Sivakumar &Pulwarty, 2014).
Risk Process: The risk management plan for Clay Oven includes identifying, monitoring,
assessing and managing the potential threats for reducing any negative impact to the brand
image, popularity and value of the restaurant in the market among the customers. Identification
of risks as early as possible in the project results to reduce their impact. In context to this, the
risk processes for the current plan consists of risk identification, assessment, mitigation,
contingency planning and tracking and reporting. Risk manager will monitor and handle the
entire operations of this project. Along with this, project team members will be assigned specific
areas for reporting risk regarding information to the project manager (Dixon, 2017).
Risk Responsibilities: The duty of managing risk is shared among all the stakeholders of the
current project. The responsibility of Risk manager and the team is as follows:
Project Manager: The duties of the project manager will be:
 To get a status report from the Risk Manager concerning the project
 Assigning work of monitoring and controlling risks to the Risk Manager
 Review the exposure assessments for any new risk items
 Redefining the top ten risk list of the project (Hartmann &Spit, 2016)

Risk Manager: The duty of the risk manager will be as follows:
 Formulation and implementation of the project risk management plan
 Formation of daily risk management sessions so that possible threats can be reviewed and
new risks can be identified within the project.
 He or she needs to ensure that risks with high impact and probability will be monitored
and handled first and effectively (Sadgrove, 2016)
 Risk Manager of the Clay Oven should provide a regular status report to the project
manager for confirming that all the risks are controlling and managing correctly by the
project team.
 It is the responsibility of risk manager is to conduct training sessions for the team
members for providing them proper information about the risk management and helping
them in enhancing their contribution and knowledge (Waugh, 2015).
Project Team Member: The responsibilities of the project team members concerning risk
management are as follows:
 The team must identify every hazard related to the implementing change for avoiding the
failure or lose money or resources.
 It is also necessary for the team to evaluate and admit the probability of occurring the
identified risks. Further processes of the risk management are conducted by chance. Low
probability risks can be avoided, but high probability risks cannot be.
 It is the liability of risk management team to use an appropriate strategy like Avoidance,
Modification, Retention and Sharing for handling the risks adequately (Marcelino-Sádaba
&et.al., 2014).
Risk Threshold: The risk management team will use this tool for measuring the degree of
uncertainty and level of impact. Risk of food quality, improper services, fire, safety and security,
cleanliness are high which need to be handled in time for avoiding any significant loss to Clay
Oven. The team members will conduct useful calculation of the risk threshold for analyzing the
degree of uncertainty. The risk appetite statement of the project will include a higher level
statement which will consider the top priority risk of the project which management will have to
accept and handle effectively. The report will consist of dangers regarding health and safety,

food quality, fire risks and cleanliness for avoiding any problem to the employees and customers
as well. The threshold calculation of the risk will represent the limit of the Clay Oven beyond
which it will be unable to tolerate the risks (Weichselgartner &Pigeon, 2015).
Risk Finances: This section of risk management plan will provide detail about the manner in
which amounts for the reserve accounts can be created. This section explains both funds which
set aside for the risks within the project and management control for outside purview of the
project. In context to this, the team will plan all the details as to how and when they can draw
down the funds from the reserve accounts (Glendon, Clarke. &McKenna, 2016).
Apart from this, the company will calculate the financial risk for understanding the loss
of money by the shareholders due to the investment. The firm will determine the way in which it
will pay the damages due to the risks. The team members will identify most effective and least
costly method. On the other hand, team members will decide the budget for investing in the risk
management plan (Marcelino-Sádaba & et al., 201).
Risk Evaluation: It is the process of searching and measuring the threats. After the
identification of the risks like food security, health and safety risk, financial risk, restaurant
failure, cleanliness and bad reputation, these will be analyzed and evaluated by the Clay Oven.
The evaluation will be conducted by the determining the affect of risk on the success of the
present project. Usually, the impact of the dangers will provide one or any combination of the
below explained consequences:
 Project results or benefits are delayed and decreased
 Reduced quality of the project output
 Extended period
 Increase in the cost.
After analysis, risks need to be evaluated for determining the likelihood and impact of a
threat. In the evaluation, possibility refers to the qualitative measure of probability for
representing the strength. Along with this, impact includes the qualitative measure of adverse
affect for conveying the overall loss of value (Baskerville, Spagnoletti &Kim, 2014). The risk
score table for the present project is as follows:

Probability Matrix:
Likelihood Description Probability Scale
High chance High chances of
occurring risk
89%-99% 1
Medium Occurrence of risk is
50%
50%-89% 2
No chance The risk is unlike to
occur
0-50% 3
Impact Matrix:
Impact Description Scale
Acceptable Need support of third
party for controlling the
impact as it can affect
the completion of
project
1
Tolerable To develop response
plan on the basis of risk
type and control them
according to mitigation
plan
2
Intolerable It is easy to accept the
risk and fine to proceed
3
Opportunity Matrix:
Opportunities Description Score
Excellent Use of opportunity at its
best
1
Beneficial Use of opportunity
according to the
advantages
2
Restricted Ignore the opportunities 3

The results changes from acceptable to the intolerable which are measured as:
IMPACT
Likelihood Acceptable Tolerable Intolerable
No chance Low Medium High
Medium Low Medium High
High
chance
Medium High High
Type of risk Likelihood Impact
Restaurant Failure No chance Intolerable
Poor Brand image Medium Intolerable
Health and Safety High chance Intolerable
Cleanliness High chance Acceptable
Fire Safety No chance Intolerable
Food Storage Medium Acceptable
The above risks related to the restaurant needs to be handled expertly for avoiding any
loss to the project.
Process Timing: The projects having high risk need frequent risk re-evaluation. On the other
hand, the projects with lower risk do not require much frequency. As per the implementation of
the plan for publicity of the new restaurant of Clay Oven includes high risk regarding security,
this the re-evaluation will be conducted on a frequent basis (Aqlan &Lam, 2015). Team
members of the project will have to monitor the risks time to time at every stage of the process
for controlling them at the right time without impacting on the project development process.
Risk Response Plan
The risk response plan for the project of publicity of Clay Oven’s new restaurant is as
follows:
Rationale: With the help of right strategies and approaches, Clay Oven will able to control all
the identified risks effectively. This risk response plan will provide knowledge and information
about the predicted events. Use of appropriate strategies and methods for handling the threats

will improve the quality of decision making. Along with this, the company will keep itself ready
to resolve any problem. Proper solutions to the hazards will decrease the chances of failure of the
project and increase the security of the working environment. Different choices of strategies will
handle threats and opportunities (Lam, 2014).
Strategies for Threats: It is crucial for Clay Oven to handle its risks effectively. With respect to
this, strategies for controlling the threats of the project are as follows:
Avoid: In this strategy, Clay Oven will pay attention to remove the cause of the occurrence of the
risk. For example, for avoiding the risk of health safety, the restaurant will include all the
necessary safety equipment like safety booklet, training for safe use of kitchen equipment,
providing gloves for proper handling to the utensils and other working processes, etc. Along with
this, the restaurant will use high quality food materials for cooking healthy and tasty food items
for the customers. With the help of such strategies, Clay Oven will able to eliminate the risk.
Elimination of health and safety risk will result to reduce the risk of brand image, restaurant
failure, etc.
Mitigate: There are specific risks which cannot be removed from the project but there impact can
be reduced by doing appropriate actions. In context to this, the risk of restaurant failure cannot be
eliminated completely as it is connected with various factors. But the impact of risk can be
decreased by offering quality food, pleasant environment, proper safety, comfortable
infrastructure and many more (Henisz &Zelner, 2015).
Transfer: This consists of transfer of risk to other parties like insurance purchase, warrantee,
guarantee, etc. Concerning this, for handling the risk of food storage, the restaurant should have
proper information about their decaying period or warranty of their freshness.
Strategies for Opportunities: For getting better opportunities from the project, Clay Oven’s
project team will have to use some approaches at a specified period. These strategies will provide
accurate and latest information about the project progress. Along with this, selection of suitable
choice will help Clay Oven in expanding the restaurant branch successfully at Winnipeg with the
help of proper publicity and promotions (Jack, De Souza &Kalebaila, 2015). The option for
response strategies with respect to the project includes the following:

Exploit: Addition of the work or change to the project for making sure the occurrence of the
opportunity. In context to this, the project team needs to make changes in its plan wherever it is
necessary for developing opportunities for increasing brand awareness, profitability, and sales.
For example, by adding digital marketing strategy, Clay Oven will able to reach more people in
very less investment. It will also provide an opportunity to maintain relationships with the new
customers (Leveson, 2015).
Enhance: This strategy will lead to enhancing the profit margin and positive impact of the risk
events. With respect to this, by handling the risks effectively, Clay Oven will able to establish its
new restaurant in Winnipeg. Implementation of health and safety measures within the restaurant
will lead to developing its positive image among the customers (Chan, 2015).
Share: This strategy will consist of allocation of ownership of opportunity to a third party. Under
this, Clay Oven can allocate its ownerships regarding the chance to any third person.
Categories of Risk to be analyzed: The identified risks regarding the project will be categorized
as per their impact on the success of the project and company. The effect can be High, Medium
and Low. For example, the risk of restaurant failure is low, and risk of health and safety is
medium whereas the impact of restaurant failure at Winnipeg is exceptionally high and
implications of health and safety are also high. In context to this, the types of risk which need to
be analyzed by the risk management team of Clay Oven are as follows:
 Risk of restaurant Failure
 Risk of health and safety
 Risk of cleanliness
 Risk of food storage
 Risk of fire safety
 Risk of poor brand image
All the above described threats need to be appropriately assessed with the help of right
choice of threat controlling approach. Selection of right choice as per the risk will result to
manage their impact on the success and progress of the project (Backer & et.al., 2014).

Ownership of above categories: Clay Oven will have to develop a risk management committee
for identifying and controlling all the risks effectively and ensuring the successful
implementation of the project at the right time and right place. The above categories of the risk
are high, medium or low which need to be handled as per their impact and likelihood. Risk
Manager will responsible for management and reduction of the risks from the project of publicity
of Clay Oven restaurant at Winnipeg (Aven, 2016). For controlling the risks, the ownership of
the different types of risks is as follows:
 Risk of Restaurant Failure: Risk Manager, Project Manager and Risk Management Team
 Risk of health and Safety: Risk Manager and team members
 Risk of cleanliness: Team members and staff members
 Risk of fire safety: Risk Manager and Team Members
 Risk of food storage: Team members and cooking staff
 Risk of poor Brand Image: Project Manager, Risk Manager and Team members (Booth,
2015)
Sign/ Signature for the above Plan: The overhead created risk management and response plan
will need the approval of the top management for its further progress. In context to this, the
project team will require the signature of the appropriate authorities. The format for signature
will be as:
Signature Date
Project Sponsor
Signature Date
Project Manager
Signature Date
Risk Management Authority
Signature Date
Risk Manager

Signature Date
Project Leader
Risk Identification and Assessment
The identification and assessment of the risks will need to be documented in the risk
register for better controlling and future use. Risk register will help project team in evaluating
whether all the risks are identified with their relevant solutions or not. The risk register will help
in understanding the impact and likelihood of the risk along with their ownership. The
information provided in the risk register format will also lead to aware about the progress of the
project and its successful implementation at Winnipeg. In addition to it, the risk register will also
help in dealing with the same issue in future without wasting much time developing risk
management and response plan (Van Der Vegt & et.al., 2015). Thus, the risk register for the
identified categories of the risk concerning the publicity and expansion of new restaurant of Clay
Oven is as follows: