Monthly Archives: January 2012

The Night’s Watch and the Wall of risk management

January 20, 2012

  In the series A Song of Ice and Fire which begins with the book A Game of Thrones, by George RR Martin, we are introduced to the Wall and the Night’s Watch. The Wall is an immense fortification on the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms that defends the realm from “what lies North of the wall”. It was created over 8000 years ago and measures 300 miles in length and 700 feet in height. The protectors of the Wall are a military order clad in black known as the Night’s Watch and they are as old as the…

Read more »

How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwich: Henry Blodget

January 20, 2012

A website dedicated to the popular show Lost published a post a while back about how each of the characters on the show would make a peanut butter and jam sandwich. I have borrowed this idea to illustrate how some finance or risk management professionals might make their own sandwich. In my 4th instalment we look at how former equity analyst Henry Blodget might make a sandwich. How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwich: Henry Blodget Make an ordinary peanut butter and jam sandwich. Tell everyone that peanut butter and jam sandwiches are the best sandwiches in the world. Throw out your own sandwich…

Read more »

How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwich: Norman Marks

January 19, 2012

  In my third instalment of this increasingly less funny series, we look at how popular auditor and blogger Norman Marks might make a PBJ sandwich. How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwich: Norman Marks Add jam and peanut butter to bread. Perform a self-assessment to determine if that was actually peanut butter, jam and bread. Check off boxes. Ask Tim Leech if this is an adequate sandwich. Draft a new framework about how to make a peanut butter and jam sandwich. Solicit input on LinkedIn from others who like peanut butter and jam sandwiches. Publish findings in Internal Audit magazine.

Read more »

The black swans and Field of Dreams

January 19, 2012

  Yesterday I wrote about a white paper “Black Swans Turn Grey” from PwC. Here’s a footnote to that post. I had a good chuckle when I read about these “new black swan risks”. The authors suggest that all these unknown unknowns and unpredictable events are happening more frequently these days. This of course is not true. We are seeing the same sort of thing in the NHL with respect to concussions. For the longest time players have been getting concussions; the only difference is that now more players, coaches and people in the media are paying attention to them.…

Read more »

How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwich: Donald van Deventer

January 18, 2012

A website dedicated to the popular show Lost published a post a while back about how each of the characters on the show would make a peanut butter and jam sandwich. I have borrowed this idea to illustrate how some finance or risk management professionals might make their own sandwich. In my first PBJ post, we looked at how Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan might make a sandwich. In today’s post we look at how one of my Twitter chums, Donald van Deventer, founder of Kamakura Corporation, might make a sandwich. How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwich: Donald van Deventer Take Starship…

Read more »

The iPhone 4S of enterprise risk management

January 18, 2012

  Last year Apple released the iPhone 4S and critics pointed out it was pretty much the iPhone 4 with a big-s glued on. Although there were some minor improvements from the iPhone 4, overall it was pretty much the same phone. After reading the ERM white paper “Black Swans Turn Grey” from PwC, it made me think that all the authors have done was glue a big-s to existing ERM frameworks. While they try to make it sound like they are proposing a new risk management approach, in fact this paper reads more like an indictment of the people…

Read more »

How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwich: Nassim Taleb

January 17, 2012

A website dedicated to the popular show Lost published a post a while back about how each of the characters on the show would make a peanut butter and jam sandwich. I have borrowed this idea to illustrate how some finance or risk management professionals might make their own sandwich. In my first PBJ post, we look at how Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan might make a sandwich. This is intended to be jokes. How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwich: Nassim Taleb 1. Complain that statisticians, mathematicians, physicists, financial analysts, Nobel prize winners cannot make a peanut…

Read more »

Angry Birds risk management

January 4, 2012
Angry Birds risk management

I’ve been playing quite a bit of Angry Birds ever since I got my Samsung Galaxy Tab for my birthday. I love this game. The objective of course is for birds (each with their unique strengths) to destroy the structures –  where all the pigs who have stolen the birds’ eggs –  are hiding. When a new level is presented one looks at the weaknesses of structure and the order of the birds in the queue; then one decides where and when to strike. Often you want the Yellow bird next to smash through the wood but you have the…

Read more »