Risk management in shipping
Preparing a shipment: why talk about risk management
The term 'expedition' encompasses so many things... If you ask 10 adventurers, travelers, explorers or athletes, you will probably have 40 different definitions of what an expedition can be. In my opinion, the expedition implies a mission. A goal to achieve. An expedition can be exploratory with no other purpose than to discover an unknown area. It can be scientific for data recording and the advancement of knowledge), athletic to beat a record or commercial, selling products, or more simply, promoting a brand. In any case, shipping often involves a long preparation and the investment of significant resources. Even the lightest and most solitary shipments are the result of long-term work, teamwork, and the grouping of complementary profiles.
Achieving the goal depends on the strength of the project as a whole, well beyond the journey itself. The expedition starts at home.
Obviously, no expedition, even if perfectly prepared, will go as planned. And that’s the beauty of it. This little taste of adventure that hides between the lines of the Excel tables, in the middle of cards read, reread and turned around, almost learned by heart. This hidden uncertainty between options A, B, and Z. “If plans are worthless, planning is essential.” The stakes are high, the pressure is great. The expedition, committed by nature, carries risks. Reputational risk, in case of failure. Financial risks, weighing on the equipment. And of course human risks. An expedition pushes boundaries, and presupposes leaving the comfort zone. Is the goal worth risking one’s life to achieve it? On what narrow line do we stand, when risk and benefit are no longer in balance?
The role of a logistics and security officer on a shipment is not to answer this question, if only for herself. His role is to question the context, detail the constraints of the land, list the resources, accept the gray areas, sometimes, and provide this information to the expedition leader. It is to propose an inventory. Once the decision has been made to move forward, with full knowledge of the facts, its function is to do everything possible to ensure that the mission succeeds. That the objective is achieved, by minimizing potential damage.
Precision, attention to detail, creativity, adaptability, interpersonal skills and intuition are the essential elements of the risk management cocktail, assembled in the shaker of an almost mathematical methodology. An inexact science, a sharp, pointed, and peripheral vision at the same time. Look far away, without neglecting the very small pebble on the way. Yes, the same one that hides in the blind spot and will come to block the wheels of a machine that we had so well oiled.
Managing the safety and logistics of a shipment is not solely responsible, it’s not all knowledge and know-how. It is to feel close enough to a goal and a mission to vibrate in unison, it is to believe in it strong enough to bypass all obstacles, to deploy all one’s energy to the realization of a shared goal. This is not participating in a headlong rush. It’s moving forward, without ever losing sight of the greatest victory: giving the protagonists a chance to tell their own story.
No more metaphors, let’s take action. How do we proceed to meet these specifications?
A risk analysis is a multi-step process [To be continued]
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