Risk Management in Investment Banking and Software

Risk Management in Investment Banking and Software Introduction With the current scene in the business world it is very challenging to explore the risks involved in the business economy. The topic of Risk Management interests with the varied challenges as it has become the foundation for many organisations to effectively manage their investments or projects. The risks involved in any type of organisations are constantly increasing with the rise in competition across the globe. The recent credit crunch was also an alarming sign to manage the risk efficiently. Development of technology also has had great impact on the performance of any technological projects. Thus the topic of risk management is gaining lot of scope across various sectors in diversified businesses in todays world. So being the case, Indian economy is no exception to the above mentioned threats for the organisations to successfully achieve their goals and objectives. Conceptual Underpinnings My research is based on whether the Risk Management is used as a tool for checking quality, accessing security level, as a measuring unit as controlling tool. To check whether theories on Risk Management, really help in understanding and analysing the risks involved in todays business scenario. Also to check the practical and technical difficulties in introducing risk management as a control tool in all possible arrays of business and development. While risk management offers accountable benefits it also involves costs, the cost of implementation of Risk Measures into the organisation structure, the process and also to make it a part of the organisational planning process in order to achieve objectives at minimal risk levels. Hence it is necessary and vital to have a comprehensive Risk Management Strategy for every organisation. In order to accomplish each and every organisation needs to have a dedicated team depending on the nature of their business, organisational structure, and al so possible risks to be involved. 2.1) Literature Review The Indian Economy has been impacted with the downturn of the recession. As the effect of recession there is tremendous amount of change in the outlook of the business world. Today Management of Risk is a critical issue for organisations to minimise the level of risk they would be witnessing while involving in the business practices. Risk is always associated with uncertainty, even in our everyday activities. But we over comes these risk with our knowledge and experience by taking effectives measures to protect ourselves from these find of risks. Similarly, organisations have to consider the risks and uncertainty more strategically as they will be involving in huge business associations which might have an impact on large number of organisations and individuals. At most importance should be given to in order to avoid the disturbances from these risks or effects of these risks. Determination of these risks is critical and essential to implement Risk Management in any organisation. Smi th (1995) states that risk management is an essential part of any project or business and constitutes to be an indispensable part of organisational planning. 2.2) Risk Management as an effective tool for organisations success During the early 70s risk management had very little scope and its effects on projects and business were ignored because they were not recognised as serious threats for organisations (Merna and Al-Thani, 2008). Organisations were ignorant about the risk involved in any business process or project and hence risk management had less scope to be implemented. Later on with the development of Project risk management, in early 80s risk management was acknowledged as a specific topic in the project management literature (Artto, 1997 cited by Merna and Al-Thani, 2008). The awareness towards risks gave room for risk management to emerge as an effective tool for organisations success. Since then Risk management continues to evolve in many ways in many fields. It has emerged as a crucial aspect for business today. It has been developing steadily and obtaining great importance in the business world. Today the use of risk management concepts by the corporate managers have increased to a great extent and most of the organisations will have some kind of risk control measures and risk management policies this clearly shows that risk management is undoubtedly beneficial to the organisations. (Tufano, 1998) Successful organisations All over the world would have well coordinated risk management programme, they also recognise and identify the risks and admit that risks occur and it must be addressed. (Hiles 2007) 2.3) Risk and Uncertainty Risk is always associated with uncertainty. As identified by Bussey (1978), any decision which has a variety of outcomes is said to be subjected to risk and when probabilities can be linked to the outcome. In other words risk is the possibility of something undesirable happening. Many people think risk in terms of three main components; bad happening, the chances of it happening and the consequences if it does happen. (Merna and Al-Thani, 2008). According to Merrett and Sykes (1983) uncertainties come into picture when the there are more than one options for any course of action. However some authors feel that risk and uncertainty can be used interchangeably. Risks and uncertainties are common for all organisations irrespective of the organisations structure and their area of expertise; however, these risks are product or service specific. The nature of risk and the extent of damage or success and the result may change over time but risk itself cannot change. (Gordan 1992) In other words the effect of such risks and uncertainties differ from industry to industry and from organisation to organisation. Even with in a corporate organisation we may observe various sources of risks in different levels of the organisation. Some of such identified sources are – political, financial and legal risks at the corporate level, Economic and market risk at strategic business level and risks at project level may be precise to that particular project like Technical risks of a project. (Merna and smith 1996, cited by Merna and Al-Thani, 2008) Different organisations employ different approaches for identification of these risks and uncertainties. In order to identify these risks different methods of risk management are implemented to minimise these risks. After analysing the threat to the organisations from such risks they identify Organisations are extensively implementing the concept of Risk Management into their organisational culture. Though this process is time consuming it is onetime investment. It also involves considerable amount of capital investment. Investment banking is an industry which is known to have the maximum risks involved. Banking by itself is risk oriented business. The nature of investment banking business is volatile and they have to implement a comprehensive risk management strategy as it deals in the instruments which are highly volatile in the market. These risks have to be effectively managed for the smooth running of the organisation. So is the case with the Information or software industry. Software industry is no exception to risks though the nature of the business is not volatile they also involve lot of risks. These risks also have to be managed and addressed efficiently, to make sure it does not hamper the organisational growth. There will be a lot of system related risks and risk of manipulation, duplication and theft of the software, copyright and patents risks, technological risks and few others. The risks involved in these two industries are important, and have to managed to minimise their risks and maximise the opportunities for the organisations growth. My research is to know whether the risks involved in the above two industries are indifferent or similar. And also to identify whether risk management is being implemented in these industries as an effective tool. If it has been implemented what is the role of risk management in these industries. Aims and Objectives The research intends to concentrate on these two industries i.e. Investment banking and software industry to find if the amount of risks involved in these two industries. The research would also look on the risk control measures taken by these industries, their perspective of looking on to the risks their risk assessment and management methods and techniques. The researcher will be targeting two specific companies from both the industries and identify their risk management tools in their business. Whether it has helped them overcome these risks and to what extent they were successful in their attempts. What would be the scope for improvement for risk management in these industries? And Conduct research on these organisations to analyse if risk management has to be made mandatory for such organisations. The companies that would consider in the research are Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) which is one of the top players in investment banking sector, and Sonata Software Limited for software industry. 3.1) Research Topics Implementation of risk management as a control tool Is Risk management Organisation or industry specific? Comparative analysis of Risk and risk management in these sectors, Impact of risk and its management on business 3.2) Scope of Study This research will be investigative in nature which will be carried out on two companies Australian and New Zealand Banking Group Limited ANZ and Sonata software Ltd in a case study format, the information collected will be specific to these two companies and of sample size. A minimum of four managers in risk management will be contacted and they will be a part of this research. This research would be restricted to only two industries (Investment banking and Software industries) as the objective of the research is to compare the risk involved in these two industries. Research Strategy Research can be defined as a process undertaken to find out things collect data and interpret it systematically thereby increasing their knowledge. The research has to be based on logical findings and logical relationships and not just assumptions, and the methods used to collect such date should be meaningful (Saunders et al 2009). In layman terms research means searching for desired information from a reliable source and analyse that information to draw a conclusion for a research question. For this research techniques like qualitative data collection, desk study and interviews would be conducted. 4.1) Qualitative Research The research would be based on qualitative method of collecting data, qualitative research is an approach to study a social observable fact and it is realistic interpretive and grounded in the lived experiences of people their individual opinions and feelings. (Marshall and Rossman 2006) the data collected with this approach is non numeric data and is expressed through words. The data collected through qualitative research cannot be used directly, it has to be analysed before using it in the research. An effective qualitative research must be interactive and interpretive. It should use various methods to get the information and should be related to the context. 4.2) Case study Case study is a descriptive research which refers to gathering of thorough information of a corporate it refers to collecting all the detailed information of a particular firm and focus on the characteristics and factors of that corporate leading to its success or failure. The research intends to look at a case study of one corporate in both Investment Banking sector and software industry. The research concentrates on Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) and Sonata Software Limited and analyse the various risk involved in both the companies and how they are effectively managed. 4.3) Sampling Top managers, senior risk managers and people involved in the risk management process of the above mentioned companies will be targeted for this research and interviews would be conducted as a part of sampling technique to get the desired data. In the process of research a minimum of two persons responsible and working in risk management process of both the companies would be done. The interviews would be conducted based on the persons availability and accessibility. Data collection 5.1) Primary Data Various semi-structured interviews would be conducted to collect primary data, the interviews would be recorded. These interviews would be conducted with risk managers and employees responsible for the assessment and management of risk. Permissions and authorisations will be taken from the people interviewed and from the management before conducting the interviews. The interviews will be done personally or through internet also telephonic interviews if necessary. The questions asked in the interview will be clear and spontaneous to get clear answers to questions. 5.2) Secondary Data The data which is already available and published which can be used as useful information to our research is called as secondary data these are the data which is already researched by other researchers and is easily accessible. Risk involved in business and risk management has a vast literature and evolution of risk and its management is was there from many decades and hence a lot of information is readily available in various sources, this information will also be taken in to consideration in this research and there is no need to start the research on risk management from the scratch. The secondary data will be collected from various books, journals on risk management other online data base like EBSCO, JSTOR and other trusted sources, also the company websites would be used to get company specific information. This information would be extensively used in discussing the literature on the topic chosen. 5.3) Data Analysis The data collected from the interviews will be transcribed and assessed, analysed and interpreted in order to use it in the research, pie charts and graphs would be used if necessary to understand the risks involved and the methods and techniques used to manage the risks. The data collected through secondary data sources would be thoroughly examined and only relevant and reliable date will be included in the research. Data analysis would be done in an effective way to draw proper information and to arrive at a effective conclusion. 5.4) Reliability and Validity Reliability and validity is one of the important aspect of any research study, the data obtained must be valid and reliable. In this research there are a certain issues relating to reliability and validity like the information obtained may not be in detail as the risk management procedures of an organisation is very confidential and may not be disclosed to everyone, to overcome this the researcher may promise the organisation that the information obtained will not be disclosed to any one and will only be used to this research only. The data collected through interviews will be subjective. The reliability and validity of data will also be influenced by factors like time and place, and the conclusions drawn from the research would be the interpretations made by the researcher. 5.5) Access To start any research one important factor to be remembered by the researcher is getting access to the information required. As there is already a lot of literature on risk in business and risk management there will not be much hindrance in getting the secondary data however the researcher has to get access to obtain the primary data. The research concentrates on two organisations and the researcher has gained access in Sonata software limited and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) to do case study on their organisation and to interview people responsible for identifying and managing the risks. However there is a risk involved in this as they may deny providing the required information as it may be confidential and to overcome this risk, as a back up the researcher can also try and get access to do a case study on Deutsche Bank as well. Possible chapters: Introduction Review of the Literature: Risk involved in todays business world And the steps and techniques used to manage those risks Introduction to companies chosen for the case study and their risks and management Comparison of risk involved in both the companies Assessment of the research Conclusion Gantt chart TARGET DATE TASKS TO BE ACHEIVED March Submission of Proposal April Collecting Data and conduct research June Conduct Interviews and Collect Data + Write up of Literature Review July Analysis of Data + Submission of First Draft August Submission of Dissertation