October 21, 2009 Courtesy: Insurance Journal Standard & Poor’s Rating Services is refining and adapting its methodology for assessing insurance companies’ enterprise risk management (ERM), as set out in a recently published article, “Expanded Definition Of Adequate Classification In Enterprise…
Risk managers and Chief Risk Officers are “genuinely different types of creatures”
I enjoyed this article about the ascent of the Chief Risk Officer, The chief risk officers are coming, published in July 2009 by Lloyds. Specifically, the differences between the risk manager and the CRO are interesting as described by Peter…
What an S&P rating looks like when ERM is mentioned
Here is an example of a press release by S&P for Endurance American Insurance Co. where they note that the organization’s management and enterprise risk management capabilities were assessed as part of their rating: Credit analyst Taoufik Gharib added: “The…
Risk oversight and transparency
Here is a pretty good article by Dale E. Jones, vice chairman and partner with Heidrick & Struggles, published at boardmember.com in which he writes about a report by the National Association of Corporate Directors. Jones notes that the report…
Sustainability, risk management and new ideas
I am a big proponent of trying new things and thinking differently because it is not the low-hanging risks that will kill you but the ones you haven’t thought of yet. And where one finds these unknown unknowns is not…
Dangerous pathogens and other shower risks
There is a story out today about how shower heads can deliver a face full of dangerous pathogens. According to the story “researchers” analyzed 50 shower heads and found 30 percent “harbored significant levels of a pathogen linked to lung…
Scott Crowley – Build the Plan, Success will Follow
Have a look at something my friend, Scott Crowley wrote. He is a Partner and an Enterprise Risk Services Leader at Meyers Norris Penny LLP in Toronto. In the face of potential extreme events like terrorist attacks, blackouts, widespread pandemics…
More on spreadsheet risk
As a follow up to my post about spreadsheet risk and best practices have a look at this link from the European Spreadsheet Risk Interest Group (yes, I cannot believe such an organization exists either but they do.) The site…
Spreadsheet risks (a comedy of errors)
Here is a pretty good read by Forrester called “Controls to Mitigate Spreadsheet Risk” about the risks inherent in using spreadsheets; it includes a list of common spreadsheet risks including these: Lack of audit trail Poor security and access controls…
Retention bonuses: risk or reward?
In a recent article by Jim Heskett in Harvard Business Journal’s Working Knowledge, he weighs in on value of performance bonuses; he says “they provide an incentive to do nothing”. Is $742,000 too much to pay one executive at AIG?…