Opening and Closing remarks of Construction Lifecycle Risk Management Conference

Construction Lifecycle Risk Management Conference

Date: 17th & 18th April 2011

Venue: Sheraton Abu Dhabi Hotel & Resort, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Welcome and Opening Remarks by the Chairperson, Samer H SkaikWelcome and Opening Remarks by the Chairperson Samer H Skaik

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning.

I am delighted to join our speakers in welcoming you all and open this Conference on “Construction lifecycle Risk Management” in Abu Dhabi.

It gives me great pleasure and honor to chair this conference. I am so happy that we have in this hall, dedicated individuals from different backgrounds and expertise, from various industries across the GCC region. Those delegates who travelled for miles remind us how important this conference is. Thank you all for coming.

The concept of the risk management approach belongs to the early 1970s when Gustav Hamilton proposed the “risk management circle” to describe the interaction of all elements in the risk management process (assessment, control, financing and communication).

Since then, the technical and financial sides of risk management have gradually been integrated under the same independent function. Most medium-size and large organizations have now adopted risk management techniques to gain a competitive advantage to survive in this difficult market.

Currently, uncertainty exists in every aspect of the construction Industry. Organizations are confronting economic uncertainty in planning for their business, in addition to the uncertainty during the execution of their plans, which raises a question on what insurance policies will really respond to. These factors directly impact risk and a company’s ability to manage and finance such risk.

Risk is inherent in policies, strategies and programmes that companies develop for implementation. The recognition of this unpleasant fact is what makes it more interesting for professionals who want to make the best out of the challenges that they are often confronted with in business.Conference participants

Therefore, there is a real need to promote risk management as an integral part of sound organizational management. It is also important to empower the knowledge on risk management throughout all the phases of construction. Unfortunately, construction risk management is done in the beginning and is often neglected as a continuing responsibility throughout the project’s lifecycle. I sincerely believe it is not unreasonable to expect that each employee in his company should engage in this process as part of the culture within his organization.

Today and tomorrow, we will have the privilege to hear from an array of key industry experts who are not only distinguished by themselves but are clearly at the forefront of the practice of managing risk in the construction industry.

As professionals in the construction market, we are all familiar with the risk management in theory. However, there is a real need to deeply understand the real practice of risk management in business and to answer questions relating to the challenges of adopting effective strategies and techniques.

This is where I think our conference takes us. Our aim is to create a platform for the industry as a whole by implementing best practices and mitigation methods with intensive case study presentations. The big challenge is how we can take a pro-active perspective in this regard. There are many questions and issues that come to mind in this regard. However, I would rather leave the joy of exploring these to you our conference participants.

 

Our two day conference has specific objectives. We will learn how to maximize opportunities to achieve project objectives of controlling theConference participants triple constraints of time, cost and quality. We will learn how to effectively execute a risk management plan and achieve seamless project integration management. Moreover, we will gain insights to key challenges such as mitigating risk challenges that arises from the project design stage to the execution stages by applying cost effective solutions.

I wish all our participants and our distinguished speakers an enriching experience throughout the sessions of this conference.  Welcome again and my thanks for your attendance and participation. Together we should make this an informative and enjoyable conference. Prepare yourself to be challenged, excited and inspired.

And before I hand over the speech to our first speaker of today, I would like to thank Markus Evans, the organizer of this event for their great efforts in making this forum happen.

Thank you and Good Morning.

 

Closing RemarksClosing Remarks by the Chairperson Samer H Skaik

By the Chairperson, Samer H Skaik

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are grateful for your active participation in our unique conference in Abu Dhabi on Construction Lifecycle Risk Management. This Conference has confirmed that construction risk management continues to be of the utmost interest and importance to all construction professionals. The Conference has identified valuable strategies, experiences, best practices and tools to assist professionals with their risk management responsibilities. The discussion has reiterated that risk management practice needs to be a main aspect of the culture of any company working in the industry.

I had time constraint to get every speaker’s statement but just looking at the list and the rich information that are represented here, I am sure that we had the same feeling for the conference. I know that we had very strong interest and were very eager to participate because of the relevance of the conference topic to our respective line of work, being very much involved, if not directly involved, in risk management practice.

The speeches delivered emphasized and gave us the importance of discussing effective approaches and methods on risk management. The presentations from some speakers gave us a clear picture on their respective own case studies and techniques and we got brilliant ideas from them. We  appreciate  very  much  the  knowledge  showed  to  us  by  the panel of expert speakers. All the information showed are very relevant and we thank all of you.

In the first day, Mr Prashanta Bhaumik opened the series of presentations in the morning talking about fostering the use of technology and OMNI software for efficient risk management and promoting strong risk culture within the organization. He explored risks from KPI benchmarks at various milestones of project life.

Next, mr Rakesh Verma called for a consistent strong risk culture that aligns with the company’s risk strategy. He recommended maintaining constant communication throughout the monitoring and control stages embodied within PMBOK risk management paradigm.

Dr Manar Shami highlighted the challenges of implementing an integrated framework for Enterprise Risk management. He gave an example on the lack of recognition of risk management by management levels.

Mr Khalifa Al Khalifa presented a case study evaluating the stakeholder responsibilities while identifying the pathway to minimize risk liabilities. He reviewed an example of a risk profile for projects.

In addition, Mr Michael Perre discussed the selection of a governance, risk and compliance solution that is best suited for the ideal project outcome. He assessed the benefits in applying risk software solution in identifying and reducing risks in projects.

Afternoon, we moved to another area of knowledge talking about building information modeling. Mr Nicholos Pollard explained how toConference participants implement BIM for risk management and project controls by factors such as decreasing RFIs and link BIM with cost, resources and execution plan.

Mr Salah Fekry discussed very interesting topic with regard the earned value technique. He explored the other side of earned value highlighting the weakness and challenges of earned value reporting in projects.

Subsequently, Mr Prahant Naik gave a presentation on fraud risks in construction. He explained how to identify, assess and mitigate fraud risk in construction projects to reduce losses.

Then, we concluded our first day with the last presentation regarding the key to project intelligence. Mr Varughese Mathew explored the implementation of risk based tender management. He examined common mistakes in tendering to formulate mitigation strategies and suggested the best fit tendering strategy by evaluating tender cost risk associated with the various contract options.

Second day, we started with a joint presentation by Mr Ian Hauptfleisch and Ms Pat Cooper who discussed employing effective and practical controls for contractors to minimize losses and reduce risks. This includes establishing the foundation of control and earned value reporting.

Next, we moved to the challenges in delivering a first class infrastructure projects in the Gulf. Mr Sachin Kerur highlighted and discussed funding difficulties, adversarial culture and pricing issues on long build phase projects

Price risk management was one of the hottest topics of the day. Mr Arif Choksy, General Manager of Ducab, discussed implementing material cost protection through effective hedging strategies.

Later on, Mr Emad Elshorbagy discussed the time optimization as the core component in construction excellence. He suggested formulating rational project schedule forecast by quantifying time risk factors. He also explored the use of the buffer in establishing a schedule risk management.

The last presentation was given by Mr Pankaj Sinha about managing the complexity of change order and claims. He suggested developing contractual provisions and a smooth running change management framework.

Afternoon, we featured an intensive workshop on contractual risk management, where we gained a unique knowledge in the forefront of mastering fundamentals on construction contracts, claims and arbitration techniques. Mr Victor Leginsky, the arbitrator from DIAC led the discussions which include selecting best contract strategies, strategizing negotiations, achieving a fruitful dispute proceeding outcome and finally analyzing the eventual arrival of contract termination.

Distinguished speakers, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Once again, I would like to express my deep thanks to the Markus Evans, namely Ms Norli Mohammad, for organizing this event and for their excellent cooperation, and to the panel of speakers for their efforts and readiness in sharing their knowledge and experiences with the participants. I thank all participants for active participation and experience exchanges. I truly hope that the organizers would consider arranging for another gathering next year.

Overall, I am very enthusiastic about the success that we have achieved from the two-day conference. Let me now say congratulations to our participants for successfully attending the forum. We, as professionals should use the knowledge and experiences shared by the speakers as an asset to our organizations.

I wish all of you good luck and success in your career.

Please have a safe trip back home.

 

  1. I have been reading posts regarding this topic and this post is one of the most interesting and informative one I have read. Thank you for this!
    If you want to be a construction manager, first of all, you need to understand construction. Start on site, and understand the process from the ground up.Check my blog Construction Management Step-By-Step Guide and Best Practices Hope this will help.

    Cheers,
    Jamil

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