Positive risks, often referred to as opportunities, are potential events that would benefit project objectives if they occur. While desirable, they still require management attention to ensure that the project is positioned to take advantage of them when they arise. Here’s a deeper dive into the strategies for managing positive risks:
- Exploit:
- Purpose: Ensure the opportunity is realized.
- Application: Allocate the best resources, change the project approach, or adopt a new strategy to realize the opportunity. For instance, if you can use new technology to speed up the project, you might decide to adopt it immediately.
- Example: If there’s a chance that a new marketing campaign could significantly boost product sales, a company might decide to invest more in that campaign to exploit the opportunity fully.
- Share:
- Purpose: Partner with others to maximize the opportunity’s benefits.
- Application: Form partnerships, joint ventures, or collaborative arrangements to leverage combined strengths. This is especially useful when the project team lacks the expertise or resources to realize the opportunity fully.
- Example: Two companies might form a joint venture to enter a new market that neither could effectively penetrate alone.
- Enhance:
- Purpose: Increase the likelihood and the positive impact of the opportunity.
- Application: Identify and strengthen the triggers or drivers of the opportunity. This might involve adding more resources, refining certain processes, or focusing on specific activities that make the opportunity more likely or beneficial.
- Example: If a product feature receives positive feedback during beta testing, the team might decide to enhance it further, anticipating that it could become a major selling point.
- Accept:
- Purpose: Willingly let the opportunity occur without any effort to make it happen.
- Application: No proactive efforts are made to realize the opportunity, but it’s a welcomed benefit if it happens. This passive approach is often adopted when the effort to exploit, share, or enhance the opportunity might outweigh the benefits or when resources are constrained.
- Example: A company might decide not to invest in a new promotional campaign but will happily accept any increase in sales if a celebrity spontaneously endorses their product.
In conclusion, while positive risks or opportunities are beneficial, they require strategic management. By understanding and applying these strategies, project managers can ensure they are in the best position to capitalize on any opportunities, maximizing the benefits for their projects and stakeholders.
