Risk culture for the aviation sector of the future

Our colleague, Brett Dorney, was recently invited to present the closing presentation to the annual Aircraft Builders Council (ABC) Conference, held this year in the gorgeous Californian coastal spot of San Francisco on the 18th and 19th September 2017.  Brett began by building on the earlier opening presentation from Dame Inga Beale, CEO of Lloyd’s of London, specifically exploring the current and emerging risks at a strategic level.  He also summarised the incredible progress made in the vast array of design and engineering-led solutions to ensure safe operations in aviation, particularly by the airframe, engine and component manufacturers.  Brett went on to reflect on the investment in management systems for risk and safety, where Aretai are spending considerable time currently helping our clients to drive greater predictive outcomes for risk.  This effort is aimed at ensuring the risk (and safety) management systems are providing valuable decision information to the executive team about where risks and hazards to the business can be expected to arise, rather than always looking in the rear-view mirror!

With the context established, Brett then facilitated the audience to identify the emerging risks and opportunities to the sector and collectively they considered the effect on risk culture, how that optimum risk culture might yet be achieved and indeed, whether risk culture in this future even mattered at all!   Everyone agreed that the sector would have to be engaged in the behavioural and cultural change needed to realise the opportunities that the future will no doubt bring!

The ABC organisers thanked Brett for his insights and contribution, particularly noting how he managed to weave in references to relevant content from all the speakers who had come before him over the course of the two days.