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Risk management lesson washed away

January 29, 2013
Risk management lesson washed away

  Here’s a story about a watermain break in the Montreal borough of Pierrefonds, Quebec which left about fifty homes without water for a couple of days. The West Island Gazette writes: Pierrefonds residents can expect two four-litre bottles of water per household will be delivered to their door by borough workers sometime before supper, Monday. Borough spokesperson Johanne Palladini explained the watermain break, which has left between 40 and 50 Fifth Avenue homes without water since Sunday morning, will only be fixed Monday night, sometime between 9 and 10 p.m. While I agree delivering water to these families is…

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Risk Articles names Riskczar to Top 10 blogs

January 14, 2013
Risk Articles names Riskczar to Top 10 blogs

  I would like to thank Kate at RiskArticles.com for naming Riskczar.com one of its “most interesting, current, and informative” blogs. I am honoured to be in such wonderful company. Please have a look at the complete list.      

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Broken windows

November 13, 2012
Broken windows

  Once upon a time there were three little boys left unsupervised while on a field trip when one of them spotted a large crack in a window pane. So he tapped the glass once and nothing happened. Next, the second boy tried his luck and poked the glass as well. Tap tap tap. Again it did not break. Now the third boy approached, looked around, saw that none of the teachers were watching and because his friends didn’t break the window he tapped lightly on the glass with his index finger. Nothing. So he poked harder. No change. Then…

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Too much risk management

October 26, 2012
Too much risk management

  Many people will agree that risk management is important. After we identify and assess a risk, it is treated appropriately and managed to an acceptable level. But is it possible to over-risk manage? Can the treatment become so onerous that people are encouraged to find workarounds thus rendering the controls useless? And if so, why does it happen? Following the bombings of two American embassies in Africa in 1998 new facilities were redesigned and built by “American construction companies with experience in building prisons and military barracks”. Many buildings were moved to less populated areas or on the outskirts…

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Risk management: Oh please tell me more

October 19, 2012
Risk management: Oh please tell me more

         

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Don’t make fun of risk management

August 15, 2012
Don’t make fun of risk management

  There’s an intersection in my neighbourhood that makes me nervous to drive through. Imagine a quiet suburban street that goes north-south which intersects the east-west streets that only have stop signs. I’ve observed that frequently cars travelling east-west roll through their stop or assume it is a four-way stop and the perpendicular traffic will yield to their non-existent red octagon. Literally this is an accident waiting to happen. As a result of the limited trust I have in the drivers going the other way, when going north-south I tend to slow down. And when I do my wife mocks my…

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Bear risk management

July 25, 2012
Bear risk management

My lovely wife wants to take me camping next weekend. I’ve never been camping but understand camping was a part of her life before we met. I’ve explained that I am not averse to camping despite the dirt, cold, sleeping on the ground, canned beans, raccoons, no wifi, poison ivy, bugs and bears. But am quite looking forward to it! While looking for camp sites in central Ontario, Killbear Provincial Park seemed like the choice. With a name that includes the verb ‘kill’ and the noun ‘bear’ I imagine it must be safe! She began doing some research on tripadvisor.com and…

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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.

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Tips on writing a zombie evacuation memo

October 31, 2011

  One of the biggest risks about evacuating your office in the event of an emergency is getting people to actually evacuate safely. You can send all the emails you want about procedures but like the boy who cried were(wolf) sometimes we hear the warning alarms so frequently that when we really have to evacuate we don’t bother. As a result many BCM people struggle with how to get people to read and learn. Then last summer I read a preparedness post by the Centre for Disease Control who spun the best practices for traditional disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes…

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Barry Hughes: Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort and game theory

July 27, 2011

In keeping with my Harry Potter and risk management theme, have a read at this post called “Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort and game theory” from Barry Hughes from the blog Game Theory Strategies. Harry Potter could have used game theory to defeat Lord Voldemort. No-one dared to even speak the name of Lord Voldemort, only calling him ‘He-who-must-not-be-named’, ‘You-know-who’ or ‘the Dark Lord’. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows anyone speaking his name is tracked down by Voldemort or his followers and this is how they find Harry, Ron and Hermione. If everyone in the world had overcome their…

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