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…
Ned Stark. Hand of the King. Chief Risk Officer.
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…
Felix Kloman, the Rocket and risk management
I received an email from Felix Kloman last Friday. If you do not know about Mr. Kloman’s work, then I strongly suggest that you click on the Felix Kloman (Legend) link in my Blogroll to find his Risk Management…
Gladwell, crashing planes and risk management
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…
Dan Gardiner, optimism and iceberg risk
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…
Riskczar Haiku #1
This is Riskczar’s first risk management-related haikus. Riskczar Haiku #1 A referendum? You really want debt default George Papandreou?
Tips on writing a zombie evacuation memo
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)…
Evacuating the Building Because of a Zombie Infection
To be read in association with the post: “Tips on writing a zombie evacuation memo“. There are many reasons – including fire or bomb threats – that require us to evacuate the building but it is equally important that we prepare…
Rant about mobile phones and E. coli
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…
ERM, Stephen Covey and my 13-year old son
When my son was 7-years old he asked me what I did for a living. I explained that “Daddy goes to companies and helps them find where all the bad things are.” Ironically, this definition served me well when I…