Many of us are familiar with Jean Valjean, the protagonist from Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables, made more famous in the 80s thanks to the musical of the same name. In the story, Monsieur Valjean is sent to a prison camp for stealing a loaf of bread: 5 years for the crime and 14 more [...]
Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
JPMorgan 24601
Posted in Books, tagged Ina Drew, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan, Kweku Adoboli, Les Misérables, Maureen Miskovic, Oswald Grübel, The London Whale, UBS on May 16, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Under the Dome risk management
Posted in Books, Frameworks, My Opinions, Risk management, tagged cash, emergency, Emergency Preparedness Week, risk management, Stephen King, Under the Dome on May 2, 2012 | 2 Comments »
In Stephen King’s novel, Under the Dome, a small town in Maine becomes suddenly cut off from the outside world by “an invisible barrier of unknown origin”. If that sounds a bit too much like the Simpsons Movie or science fiction for you, simply replace the dome with any other sort of hazard (earthquake, [...]
The Walking Dead and risk management
Posted in Books, ERM Basics, Humour, Risk management, tagged ERM, impact, likelihood, television, walking dead, zombie on March 20, 2012 | 4 Comments »
If there are two things you have noticed about this blog, I often write about zombies and the Moment of Risk Enlightenment. Today’s post combines both. (Note: This post contains spoilers about season two of the Walking Dead.) I was catching up on season two of the “post-apocalyptic” television show The Walking Dead this week. [...]
Real Human Beings and the Elephant Man
Posted in Books, Frameworks, Office and culture, Thought Leadership, tagged dave howlett, greater good, john merrick, real human beings, RHB, ted coine on February 29, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Perhaps one of the most famous movie quotes from my childhood was from the 1980 movie ‘The Elephant Man’ based on the life of Joseph (John) Merrick, a severely deformed man in 19th century London. At one point in the film Merrick cries out to an angry mob “I am not an animal! I am [...]
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 »
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 [...]
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 | 4 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 [...]
