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 [...]
Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
The Night’s Watch and the Wall of risk management
Posted in Books, leadership, My Opinions, Risk management, tagged A Game of Thrones, audit, CRO, Night's Watch, risk management, Wall, Westeros on January 20, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Maslow, Ned Stark and the Common Good
Posted in Books, leadership, My Opinions, Office and culture, tagged A Game of Thrones, budget, leadership, Ned Stark, spending, ted coine, Tom Coburn, waste on December 23, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Last week Ted Coine asked ‘what ever happened to the Common Good?’ At some point people stopped doing the right thing and started putting their individual selfish interests ahead of those of their organizations, countries or kingdoms: UBS, the nation of Greece, Queen Cersei, etc. These days we see squabbling in Washington over the budget [...]
Ned Stark. Hand of the King. Chief Risk Officer.
Posted in Books, ERM Basics, My Opinions, tagged A Game of Thrones, CRO, Hand of the King, Ned Stark, risk, risk management, Wintelfell on December 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Eddard (Ned) Stark, Lord of Winterfell, is a protagonist in the book A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. He is principled and tells the truth and believes in honour and justice. Ned would make an excellent Chief Risk Officer. When King Robert Baratheon asked him to become the Hand of the King – [...]
Felix Kloman, the Rocket and risk management
Posted in Books, League of Extraordinary Risk Gentlemen, Risk management, Thought Leadership, tagged ERM, Felix Kloman, hockey on November 22, 2011 | 1 Comment »
I received an email from Felix Kloman last Friday. If you do not know about Mr. Kloman’s work, then I strongly suggest that you click on the Felix Kloman (Legend) link in my Blogroll to find his Risk Management Reports or look for his books The Fantods of Risk and Mumpsimus Revisited: Essays on [...]
Gladwell, crashing planes and risk management
Posted in Books, ERM Basics, My Opinions, Office and culture, Risk management, tagged airlines, airplane, CRO, culture, Gladwell, risk culture, risk manager, risk officer on November 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
In his book “Outliers”, author Malcolm Gladwell explains how “The kinds of errors that cause plane crashes are invariably errors of teamwork and communication” as opposed to mechanical causes. Also, they usually happen after a sequence of mistakes and misfortunes and rarely because of one event. Our respective cultures dictate how we work and [...]
Dan Gardiner, optimism and iceberg risk
Posted in Books, My Opinions, Risk management, tagged bias, Dan Gardner, Future Babble, overconfidence, risk management, Titanic, truth on November 4, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Dan Gardner writes in Chapter 3 of his book Future Babble: “Overconfidence is a universal human trait closely related to an equally widespread phenomenon known as ‘optimism bias’.” This overconfidence often leads us to assess our risks poorly. We all know about the captain of the Titanic who must have been extremely optimistic before that [...]
Rant about mobile phones and E. coli
Posted in Books, Humour, My Opinions, Risk management, tagged Android, BlackBerry, E. coli, Fast Food Nation, hand washing, iPhone, shit on October 19, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The book Fast Food Nation was one of my favourites when I read it years ago specifically the chapter about the risks of E. coli and the meat packing industry. One of the most memorable quotes I know came from this book: “There is shit in the meat”. Well I guess now we can say [...]
Risk management oldies but goodies
Posted in Books, ERM Basics, Frameworks, Humour, My Opinions, Office and culture, Risk management, tagged assess, Buffet, CEO, CRO, derivatives, enterprise risk, ERM, Grover, HR, Riskczar, technology, The Monster at the End of This Book, wireless on October 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The good folks at Riskviews got me thinking about my least read posts. I’ve been doing this for a few years and understand that no one wants to scroll through over 300 blog entries to find some gems from 2006. So here are a few items you may have missed that might be worth your [...]
Oswald Grübel’s moment of wrongness
Posted in Books, Risk management, tagged Kathryn Schulz, Kweku Adoboli, Maureen Miskovic, Oswald Grübel, Oswald Gruebel, wrong, wrongness on September 23, 2011 | 3 Comments »
I just had the pleasure of watching author Kathryn Schulz’s TED video about being wrong. As I watched I couldn’t help thinking about Oswald Grübel’s “moment of wrongness”: when he learned about UBS’s $2 billion trading loss. Last November Grübel went on record saying “Risk is our business. I can assure you, as long as I’m [...]
Voldemort vs Taleb Deathmatch
Posted in Books, Humour, My Opinions, Risk management, tagged Black Swan, death, risk management, Taleb, Voldermort on July 15, 2011 | 3 Comments »
With all the hype surrounding the final Harry Potter movie, I thought I would compare Voldemort to Nassim Taleb, financial guru and author of the book “The Black Swan”, to see who is greater. (Plus I thought it might be funny.) (Removed a really good photo of Voldemort and Taleb) Place of Birth Taleb: Amioun, Lebanon (winner) Voldemort: [...]
