Rethinking Risk Management
After spending nearly 20 years as an environmental engineer, Rebecca Jackson suddenly found herself in a new role at Tonkin + Taylor, an engineering consultancy based in New Zealand. Named quality program manager at the company, Jackson became a member of a newly formed team responsible for managing risk at the corporate level and for client projects. To prepare for the challenges that came with this position, Jackson applied for—and won—a scholarship to study risk management, which she used to attend the Risk Management for Corporate Leaders program at Harvard Business School (HBS) Executive Education. In this interview, Jackson shares highlights from her experience.
Tell us about your role at your company.
I have a dual role: I'm a consulting engineer doing work for clients, and I have a corporate role on my company’s risk management team. Our company provides professional services to a variety of clients, and I'm responsible for the quality of the work that we produce, along with the policies and processes that ensure that service. I'm quite new to that role, starting only a year and a half ago. So, after more than 20 years of working in engineering, I'm experiencing a whole new corporate environment. My company also recently restructured for the first time in our 60-year history, and our risk team is part of this new structure.
What brought you to this program at HBS?
I wanted to learn what risk to businesses is all about. I thought that the HBS program most closely aligned with what I wanted to achieve, both personally as well as professionally. I applied for, and won, a scholarship through a New Zealand consulting engineering society called CEAS to attend the Risk Management for Corporate Leaders program. I knew the program would be beneficial to me as well as my organization and that I could share learnings with other CEAS companies in New Zealand.
What are some of the risks that your company has to manage?
We have to manage a variety of risks, both in the service we provide to our clients and in the operation of the business itself. Risks could include health and safety, technical design, staff resourcing, work with suppliers or subcontractors, reputational risks, cyber threats, strategy, or natural disasters that are all too common in New Zealand!
Our company also has to think about the culture of risk within the organization. The problem-solving mindset and can-do nature of engineers can also present biased thinking. Engineers are used to providing answers rather than thinking about what might go wrong, so that is a possible blind spot for our business.
What takeaways from the program did you find most valuable?
The participants in the program—regardless of the size of our organization or the type of work we do—were easily able to translate lessons from the case studies back to our daily work. For example, I could directly translate the lessons from the case study on NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Space Shuttle Columbia back to my organization. Through this experience, we learned that it's okay to experiment and try different methodologies, but it’s important to think about risk management in a systematic way.
I also really enjoyed learning about the different types of risk: strategic, preventable, and novel. I learned some pragmatic tools for identifying and managing those three types of risk. This new way of thinking was very helpful.
What did you gain from working with other participants in the program?
I noticed that some participants from other companies had additional metrics in place compared to my company—which, I realized, could be an area for improvement. I also noticed that there are things that our company has to consider that others don't. Identifying and managing social and environmental risk, for example, is a part of daily life in consulting engineering, whereas others may not have to consider that potential.
I really enjoyed working with the participants. They were all amazing people who had very little ego in the way that they presented themselves. Because of the way the program is structured, I wasn't intimidated to raise my hand or offer a remark in class.
Is there anything about this program that surprised you?
I thought that participating in the discussions with my living group might be quite intimidating. But everyone in the program really hit it off, and I ended up making some very good friends. The living groups help to facilitate the case study analysis and allow people to be more open. Lastly, I was impressed by the talented faculty.
What advice do you have for someone considering this program?
Be very clear on what you want to get out of the experience. Think about what risks are inherent in your organization. How well is your organization managing those risks? The program is a big investment, so it's important to commit yourself and your time to the program. You need to be able to participate, and part of that participation is networking and building relationships with other participants. Lastly, enjoy it. If given the opportunity, I would do another HBS executive program in a heartbeat.