There’s a nail in the tire of my wife’s car. Rear driver side. Fat head pushed all the way in. It caught her eye on the weekend by accident while the car sat in the driveway. Tire pressure appears normal. Is this a risk? Since getting a flat tire could cause her to fail to [...]
Archive for the ‘My Opinions’ Category
You don’t need to mitigate every risk: Tire edition
Posted in ERM Basics, Frameworks, My Opinions, tagged car, Chevy, dashboard, ERM, impact, likelihood, tires on February 13, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
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 [...]
The iPhone 4S of enterprise risk management
Posted in Frameworks, My Opinions, Risk management, Thought Leadership, tagged audit, Black Swan, change management, ERM, iPhone, leadership, PwC ERM, risk management, Taleb on January 18, 2012 | 1 Comment »
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 [...]
Angry Birds risk management
Posted in Humour, My Opinions, Risk management, tagged Android, angry birds, prioritize, risk, risk management, risk treatment, Strategy, tactics on January 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
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 [...]
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 – [...]
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 [...]
Riskczar Haiku #1
Posted in My Opinions, Risk management, tagged Greece, haiku, risk management on November 1, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
This is Riskczar’s first risk management-related haikus. Riskczar Haiku #1 A referendum? You really want debt default George Papandreou?
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 [...]
