Positive Risk Management
Negative risks matter, but “risk” is often defined too narrowly. Positive risk management focuses on identifying, assessing and managing beneficial outcomes, with boards pairing threats and opportunities to enable balanced decisions (Bryce, Ashby and Ring, 2024).
Technique Overview
Positive Risk Management Definition
Risk is the probability that an event will occur with negative or beneficial outcomes for a person or group. Positive risk management focuses on identifying, assessing and managing these beneficial outcomes. In projects, it is often formalised as opportunity management with defined, systematic processes to identify, evaluate, select and exploit or enhance upside scenarios (Zaman et al., 2023). Some organisations emphasise building a culture where risk is openly discussed and routinely, proactively managed by all stakeholders (Bisson, 2014; Thomas, 2015).
Positive Risk Management Description *
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Business Evidence
Strengths, weaknesses and examples of Positive Risk Management *
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Business Application
Implementation, success factors and measures of Positive Risk Management *
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Professional Tools
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Further Reading
Positive Risk Management web and print resources *
Positive Risk Management references (4 of up to 20) *
- Bisson, C. (2014) Plan for Positive Risks, Project Management Institute [online], available at: https://www.pmi.org/learning/PM-Network/2014/plan-for-positive-risks.aspx
- Blome, C., Groetsch, V., Henke, M. and Tang, C. (2012) A Comparative Study of Financial and Operational Measures in the Automotive Industry, in O. Khan and G. Zsidisin (Eds.) Handbook of Supply Chain Risk Management, J. Ross Publishing, Florida.
- Bryce, C., Ashby, S. and Ring, P.J. (2024) ‘Reconciling risk as threat and opportunity: The mutuality of risk and reward’, Risk Analysis. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.14133.
- Burrow, J. and Fowler, A. (2015) Marketing (4th ed.), South-Western Cengage Learning, Boston, MA.
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