Apply for the Risk Prize

Centre for Risk Studies (CRS)
Centre for Risk Studies (CRS)

Overview

The launch of the 2025 Cambridge-McKinsey Risk Prize competition will take place on Tuesday 3 December 2024 in the Chen Tsao Lecture Theatre (Cambridge Judge Business School) at 17:45 – 18:15 UK time.

An award will be made for the best submission on risk management by a postgraduate student at the University of Cambridge who is enrolled in their postgraduate course on the submission date of the Risk Prize.

The winner and 2 honourable mentions will be announced in early June 2025. The winner will be awarded a prize of £3,000 at the Centre for Risk Studies’ 2025 annual Risk Summit. The prize award ceremony will be at a plenary session attended by finance, industry and academic delegates. Judges will include members of McKinsey’s Global Risk Practice and members of the Centre for Risk Studies at Cambridge Judge Business School.

How to apply

Entries should be in the form of an illustrated document no longer than ten pages, including appendices and references. Exhibits, tables of data, etc, are encouraged. The subject matter should be broadly related to risk management including; governance, risk in strategy, risk modelling, risk metrics, or risk as a general subject. Potential subjects include regulation, corporations, global strategy and financial institutions. Beyond framing of risk, some attention to management of or response to risk is expected.

Entrants are encouraged to view McKinsey’s latest thinking on risk.

The prize is open to all postgraduate students at the University of Cambridge who are enrolled in their course on the submission date of the Risk Prize. Essays must be sole authored, ie by the entrant. Entrants may submit essays for the Risk Prize which draw on their course projects or other research, sole authored or collaborative, and should reference such work accordingly. When using existing work, it is important to rewrite it so that your essay respects the broader aims of the Risk Prize. The judges will take into consideration the originality of essays.

Your application

Both pdf and doc documents should be in line with the submission process and deadline:

Getting started on your risk essay

The subject of your essay should be broadly related to risk management including governance, risk in strategy, risk modelling, risk metrics, or risk as a general subject. Potential subjects include regulation, corporations, global strategy and financial institutions.

This template is intended to help you develop your essay. It is suitable for a case study of either an organisation or an industry/sector. Whether you use it is entirely optional; it isn’t part of the submission for the Risk Prize. If you have a different style of essay in mind, that’s great – “follow your nose”!

This template will speak to an organisation or industry/sector, addressing questions such as:

  • How does it recognise risk and uncertainty?
  • How does it incorporate macro-level risk analysis into its management processes (including consideration of stakeholders, strategic decisions and governance)?
  • How does it compare to either industry peers or other sectors?
  • How are these aspects changing over time?

You are encouraged to make use of your own experience, experience from practitioners or documents from organisation that you may paraphrase or quote, and the broad spectrum of information in any form that can be referenced: hard copy, web-based, news and analysis, social media etc. We suggest using the Harvard Referencing System which is well documented on the web.

For development of your essay, a starting point is to fill in details below wherever text in bold appears:

Risk Management for: company or sector

Essay plan (200 words max – if you can express this as a “story” in a few bullet points, then your subsequent job will be easier: tell and explain your story through evidence.)

  • What attracts you to this firm/sector?
  • Highlight the issue or problem
  • Describe the approach to solving it
  • Give a clear take-away/implications for management

Include information on data sources as per below:

  • Web: relevant docs on company website, news articles
  • If focus is a single firm: name of comparator firm(s) (in same or other sector)
  • If focus is a sector: name of specific firms you might use as illustrations
  • Name of comparator sector(s)
  • Industry bodies: name of industry bodies, websites, and what kind of information you hope to find
  • Practitioners you will consult: names, employers, job titles, relevant areas of expertise
  • Personal experience: past employer(s), job title(s), relevant areas of expertise
  • Practitioner papers and books: specific sources beyond the course references

Deadline

Submissions for the 2025 Cambridge McKinsey Risk Prize will be accepted from 1 March 2025 until the closing date Wednesday 2 April 2025 at 23:59.

Please send your essay to risk.prize@jbs.cam.ac.uk.

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