Topic: Risk Management

Order Description
Risk Management
Shareholders and lenders, whilst not being the only stakeholders, provide capital to companies because they seek a return commensurate with the level of risk that they
are willing to take.
This implies that they expect the executives of companies to demonstrate levels of entrepreneurship and dynamism which will involve a certain degree of risk taking.
The expectation is that these risks will be well considered and well managed.
It could, therefore, be proposed that the improved management of business risk will lead to enhanced and sustainable, shareholder value.
It is within this context that Ryanair has grown as a company from carrying 5,000 passengers in 1985 to carrying 81,700,000 passengers in 2013
(http://corporate.ryanair.com/about-us/history-of-ryanair/).

Required:

1. Semple (2007) states that, “There are considerable benefits in taking time to articulate risk appetite properly” (p25). He goes on to add that, “Different parts of
organisations and external stakeholders have different perspectives [on risk appetite]” (p25) and that, “culture, strategy and competitive position all influence risk
appetite” (p26).
Therefore, Semple (2007) highlights the importance of risk appetite but, as may be expected, does state that, “Consequently, articulating risk appetite is a complex
task………………………” (p25).

Required:

a) In view of Semple’s statements (above) you are required to provide a critical view on whether or not you believe it is desirable, and possible, for a company to
effectively articulate its risk appetite.
Your discussion should encompass a wide range of literature and should be fully supported by a good deal of academic underpinning (i.e. references). There should be
evidence of wide-reading in addition to the article by Semple (2007).
(35%)

b) Given your work on the previous tasks you are required to provide a detailed view on the ‘risk appetite’ displayed by Ryanair. You should provide full support for
any assertions that you make with regard to this response.
(15%)

(Total 100 marks)

Further Information:
You are required to present well structured answers of no more than 2,000 words.
ALL parts of the assignment carry equal weighting.
Learning Outcomes Assessed
• Understand the all encompassing nature and importance of risk management
• Use both qualitative and quantitative techniques in order to evaluate and manage risk
• Consider the external and internal influences on corporate management approaches to risk management
• Appreciate the importance of disaster scenario planning in today’s economic environment.
How to succeed in this assignments!

Important specific points to remember
• Think about the question and the structure of your answer – you need a clearly defined structure which addresses the specific issues of the assignment. Therefore,
PLAN your response very carefully before beginning to write. Think to yourself:

o What is the question asking me to do?
o Is what I am writing focussed on the question – is it relevant – or am I just including it because I found it!!?

• Make sure that you read all articles which are referred to in the assignment

• Never write anything in your assignment that you do not understand

• Do not use ‘bullet points’ to any great extent – this tends to preclude analysis and explanation

• Think about presentation
o Use short sentences
o Use many short paragraphs – a new paragraph for each different idea.
o Do not use too many headings – this tends to prevent the flow of the work

• When referencing
o NEVER reference to Wikipedia, Investopedia, mbaessays.com, chaeatsrus.com etc – these websites are all unsubstantiated – the material on these can be written by
anyone – ALWAYS use academic literature (journal articles, text books etc – these have been refereed by other academics – unless you are looking on reliable websites
for data and statistics)
o If you include a quote in “speech marks” you need to also include the page number from the source as well as the author name and date – no page numbers if there is
no quote
o All the references that appear in the script should appear in your Reference List – it is not a Bibliography
o The Reference List should be in alphabetical order by author surname (family name)