Summer’s over and cold and flu season is upon us. My friend, Tim, told me about a phone call he received a couple of weeks ago from a health care organization offering to immunize his staff with the flu vaccine.…
Take smarter risks
Although my brother and I are equally brilliant and good looking, we couldn’t be more different professionally; but somehow we manage to agree on what risk management should mean. In his blog, the elder Terry Levine quotes Grant McCracken’s Chief Culture Officer:…
Meeting #1 of Riskczar’s Secret League of Extraordinary Risk Gentlemen
The first clandestine gathering of my Secret League of Extraordinary Risk Gentlemen was just conducted, however only Rick Nason was able to make it for lunch. The future of risk management as you know it is subject to change without…
Playboy thongs and reputation risk
What is that expression about no publicity is bad publicity? Giant Tiger, a discount retailer in Canada erred when it marketed Playboy branded underwear (thongs and bras) in its back-to-school flyer. Although the ad was aimed at the back-to-college crowd, some parent…
Centre of the risk management universe
Toronto has long believed it was the Centre of the Universe. Well, in risk management circles, perhaps now it is. Last week the Department of Finance Canada announced the creation of the Global Risk Institute in Financial Services or GRi. It…
G20 Friday – Eve of destruction
This is how most people and organizations predicted Friday would turn out: Eve of destruction. The expectation was that protests would build in Toronto throughout the work week and peak on Friday. To that end, most people planned on staying…
Keep your G20 comments to yourself
Riskczar has learned that a passenger aboard a Porter Airlines flight from Toronto Island Airport to New York was removed from the plane for making “comments about the G20 in the waiting area”. This according to the pilot. My source, who…
Riskczar’s thoughts on next week’s G20
In case you haven’t heard, the G20 Summit is coming to Toronto next week. In my current role, I’ve been involved in some of the business continuity planning but mostly from a communication perspective. All of the heavy lifting had…
Fewer people got swine flu shot
Should Public Health really be concerned that so few people received the H1N1 vaccination last winter? http://bit.ly/cbqZAh Do I have to explain this? Last year when the craziness and panic was being spread by the media faster than the swine…
My rant about Toronto pedestrians getting killed
The big story in Toronto this week is the number of pedestrians getting killed by vehicles. An “epidemic”, one no-talent Canadian news anchor who colours his hair said tonight. About 14 people have been killed so far this month (which…