Look at these two pictures. What do they have in common? At first sight, nothing. However, if you do a more thorough thought exercise you will find a number of similarities between these two very different elements, and most of them are about risk understanding.

The Axess environment is characterised by sporty, outdoor people used to looking after themselves and the people around them. This is also evident in the company culture and in the way the company reasons in business matters. The methodology is the same.

If you are going skiing in the mountains, you start making assessments the moment you get up in the morning. Through the window you see if the weather is good, you check the temperature and the online weather service to see if the weather will last through the day. Your rucksack has already been packed containing probe pole, avalanche transceiver, spade and helmet. Once on the way, you assess the slopes ahead and maybe you also check the profile of the snow and do a snow stability test. What you are doing is to assess the risk and take steps to eliminate the risk. You simply plan for a safe trip for yourself and your companions.

Project planning is about understanding how to do the job, have the right equipment, no more or no less than what you need. And you must make sure you haven’t forgotten anything. It would be critical not to have a spade if your companion is hit by an avalanche.

You must have the ability to predict what may happen. If so, you have what is needed to take the right decisions and measures. We must always identify the critical stages and reduce the risk. This applies to ski trips as well as work on offshore platforms. The safest regulatory framework of our industry is our own, but since we are such a small company one person may influence how the rest of the company performs, says Trond Stokke, senior engineer in Axess.