Planning for any corporate event, regardless of its form or purpose, must be accomplished through a risk assessment. Risk assessment and management are vital steps in strategic planning to minimize unintended consequences of actions taken (ASSP, 2021). For this reason, even an event such as a corporate fishing party to honor top executives at BlueNote, Inc. requires a thorough analysis of potential risks as well as planning for responses to such risks. The strategic planning process should begin with a direct assessment of potential risks, given the project scope described. Table 1 below shows a matrix of risks with their probabilities and destructive impact (Thorhallsdóttir, 2018). It is excellent to see that the implementation of this corporate event is associated with at least five potential risks, each of which could negatively impact the guest experience. Summarizing the risk factors, it can be estimated that the most dangerous are unexpected weather conditions (13), which can significantly affect the ability to fly, fish comfortably, and walk guests around Alaska. In fact, deteriorating weather conditions put the entire project in question since, in the case of heavy rain and thunderstorms, as well as high winds, the planned activities cannot be implemented. Next in danger is the possibility of injuries during fishing and walking (12) — in this case, the accident or carelessness of guests and guides can cause damage to physical health. While guests are responsible for their own safety during the corporate retreat, an unfortunate experience with an injury can affect their overall experience of the organization and the trip as a whole. The least dangerous, but nevertheless still a threat to the operational effectiveness of the entire event, is airline delay (8). Such a risk has nothing to do with the fault of the organizers and is instead the responsibility of the airport or airline, but nevertheless can also negatively impact the experience of being at a corporate event.
Table 1: Operational risk matrix indicating the degree of their probability, impact, and difficulty of detection
Once the risks have been identified, it is necessary to develop strategies to manage them in order to maximize the guests’ comfort and systematically reduce their occurrence. Table 2 below reflects the response matrix: with each of the actions described in it, it will be possible to plan risk management and achieve the desired goals with minimal threats. It is clearly seen that the responsibility for the implementation of solutions to address the risks lies with both the guests and the organizers of the event, which include the hiring of outsourcing. For each risk, a plan of action is described next to it in case the threat has already occurred, as well as a trigger that signals that the problem has not been corrected in a timely manner.
Table 2: Matrix of responses to risks with indication of responsible persons
References
ASSP. (2021). What is risk assessment. American Society of Safety Professionals. Web.
Laurie, B. (2021). How to tell if your flight delay is actually due to weather. Conde Nast Traveler. Web.
Thorhallsdóttir, K. (2018). Impact and probability in risk assessment. DTU. Web.