While rewatching the original Jurassic Park film I began thinking about it from a risk management perspective. When Malcolm, Grant, and Sattler arrive on the island, all is well. The dinosaurs are secured behind fences and John Hammond and his…
A cannabis licence is like a child
Risks are all those things that prevent you from achieving your objectives. If you are a licenced Canadian cannabis producer whose primary activities “relate to cannabis cultivation, processing, production, and distribution” then proactively identifying and treating all the things that…
Superman Risks and Issues
It amuses me listening to people talk about risk management concepts when they don’t understand them. I once attended a meeting of project managers and witnessed a number of these Pretty Mediocre People argue about whether something was a risk…
Operational Risk: The Truth Is Out There
With new episodes of 1990s hit series The X-Files airing in January, it got me thinking about the show’s tagline “The Truth Is Out There” and how it applies to the cloak and dagger world of operational risk. The X-Files…
Auditors, Risk Managers and Zombies
Day 1: Auditors and Zombies In a factory someplace, there are 20 workers whose job it is to continuously pass a ball to each other as quickly as possible. Watching this important work from a viewing area are 10 newly…
Risk treatment and hockey players
Who wouldn’t want Ryan Callahan on their hockey team? The New York Rangers’ captain isn’t the biggest star in the NHL but ask General Managers and fans throughout the league and everyone would be happy to have him suit up.…
Beach risk management
I’m off to Virginia Beach later this month so it seemed fitting that today’s post has a beach theme. This quote comes from Chapter 7 of Nathan Englander’s book “The Ministry of Special Cases” and you should remember these words whenever…
Risk management and cognitive biases
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of putting many people in a room to discuss and assess risks you’d know that not everyone assesses every risk the same way. To some a particular risk is high, while to others it…
Confessions of a risk manager
My 14-year old son recently bought himself a not-so-inexpensive bike with his own money. On the Monday after the purchase he wanted to take the bike to school. I advised against this as he had a pretty lousy bike lock.…
Campers, risk management and bears (oh my!)
There’s an old joke about two campers that are awakened by a hungry bear. The first guy yells ‘run’ but the second guy stops to put on his running shoes on first. The first guy asks if his companion really…