Opportunity management

Opportunity management (OM) has been defined as 'a process to identify business and community development opportunities that could be implemented to sustain or improve the local economy'. Opportunity management (OM) has been defined as 'a process to identify business and community development opportunities that could be implemented to sustain or improve the local economy'. Opportunity management is a collaborative approach for economic and business development. The process focuses on tangible outcomes. Opportunity management may result in interesting and motivating projects that help improve teamwork. Its three components are Risk management can be described as the process of proactively working with stakeholders to minimise the risks and maximise the opportunity associated with project decisions. Risks are about the possibility of an adverse consequence. Good risk management does not have to be expensive or time consuming but relies on adaptability in response to change. Risk management ensures that an organization identifies and understands the risks to which it is exposed. Organisations continuously face environments in which uncertainty is constantly challenging the existing ways of doing business and the way that risk needs to be managed. However, the upside to risk, that is often overlooked, is that the feared uncertain event could have a desired outcome. TAP University's blog notes that this is a positive risk or opportunity and needs to be managed to ensure a good result. Having a clear understanding of all risks allows an organization to measure and prioritize them and take the appropriate actions to reduce losses. Where risk management seeks to understand what might go badly in a project, opportunity management looks for what might go better. Opportunity management is the process that converts the chance to decisiveness and is increasingly becoming embedded in the culture of organisations as they mature and broaden their understanding of the value that managing uncertainty can bring. For positive risk or opportunity management to be effective in creating or protecting value it must be an integral part of the management processes, be embedded in the culture and practices of the organisation, be tailored to the business process of the organisation, and comply with the risk management principles outlined in ISO 31000. An opportunity management process has required elements that need to be evaluated before advancing and allocating scarce resources to any project. All organisations have limited resources and it is important that they are used sensibly. The first step that an organisation should take in order to improve decision making and reduce risk is identifying potential opportunities. It is advised that a business takes the necessary time and considers numerous ways of identifying opportunities for initiatives. Organisations could implement processes like 'organizational catch ball' which would help them to develop plans and strategies for economic growth in the community. As Conti notes, 'the interactive catch ball process from management level to the next is necessary for correct planning and alignment of goals'. They could also implement brainstorming activities, hold stakeholder meetings, hold focus group interviews and hold jurisdictional reviews. This would help the organisation generate ideas to include in the initiative funnel.The firm should proceed to evaluate and prioritize initiatives to enable more effective courses of action to be taken in the future. This would involve ranking criteria in order of importance to ensure the correct alignment of targets for the projects. It is vital that the firm includes many opportunities in the decision making funnel to be effective. This will allow for a more comprehensive scope of ideas to be included in the decision making funnel. An opportunity management funnel is a framework that allows management to evaluate and select opportunities. An opportunity management funnel is a process whereby many opportunities are put in up front and fewer investment decisions coming out at the end of the funnel. The goal of the opportunity management funnel is to eliminate weak ideas before they consume excessive resources while allowing strong ideas to filter through the process. The challenges for the business and project management team is to make choices and decisions that move toward the desired objectives – a task that is made difficult by change.