Over the last few decades, dealing with risk has become an important and distinctive area of management and one that is increasingly being recognised as an essential part of any successful enterprise.

In some ways, we might be forgiven a little surprise at the speed of this development; after all, we all know that ‘risk’ accompanies all of our activities, both personal and professional, and we have all learned to live with it, more or less successful. So far as our private lives are concerned, we know there are statistical risks associated with such commonplace activities as flying, driving car, playing a contact sport, eating certain foods and so on but are usually willing to accept these as a necessary price of convenience or pleasure. We might also, without realising it, apply some simple, everyday risk management by, for example, deciding not to drive on a busy motorway in bad weather or choosing to fly only with airlines we consider ‘reputable’. The Plan B approach – ‘If I’m not there by 4 o’clock, I’ll meet you back at the car’ - is another example of everyday risk management.

On a professional level, we are used to associating risk with such activities as insurance, speculative investments, working with hazardous chemicals and so on. Some of us, in fact, might view ‘risk management’ as a normal, everyday part of our job. Certainly, we will all, almost without thinking, add a contingency factor to any estimates we are required to make although few of us on these occasions will actually attempt to identify and assess what exactly we are guarding against.

Risk management goes beyond the simple acceptance of risk and now embraces every modern-day enterprise, from the commercial worlds of banking, insurance, IT, and marketing through to medicine, health and safety, hi-tech industries such as nuclear and chemical plants and offshore oil and gas installations to all major aspects of public and political life. It is increasingly an integral part of design, development and project management, helping to decide the siting of factories and public utilities for example and, through growing public awareness, influences much of our lifestyle and many of our personal decisions.