Risk & Opportunity Management

What to Do When Risks are Unavoidable

As is often repeated on this blog and elsewhere, the focus of risk management should not be minimizing harm to the organization but achieving objectives and maximizing success. No company can (…or should) try to avoid all risks. Taking this route can be disastrous, especially in today’s world. When developing strategy, hopefully your organization is…

Why Your Company Must Not Abandon ERM in These Trying Times

Wherever you are in the world, I hope this post finds you healthy and well in this difficult time. The COVID-19 pandemic is something most, if not all of us, have ever faced before. Before jumping into today’s post, a quick update on how my family and I are doing… Here in Florida, the number…

Coronavirus Response Not Always About Minimizing Harm

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last couple of months, you have undoubtedly heard about COVID-19, a new type of coronavirus. In a daily report from the World Health Organization for March 9th, there are close to 110,000 reported cases worldwide. Sadly, the virus has claimed the lives of just over…

Protecting Trade Secrets: Finding the Right Balance

Out of all potential sources of a company’s value, tangible or intangible, trade secrets are often the most valuable. While the theft of trade secrets is nothing new, it is an ongoing and growing problem that leads to over $300 billion in annual losses according to the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property.…

Be Warned: Impacts from Cyber Attacks Not Fully Insurable

In speaking with clients or other organizations, I’m often astounded by the response I receive when I ask about cyber-attacks. Too often, the risk professional or executive I’m speaking with says something like this – “Oh, we have insurance coverage for that…” This is cringe-worthy, like fingernails on a chalkboard cringe-worthy to me. Black Board…

Risk-Based Decision-Making: A Historical Analysis of Napoleon’s Life

A few weeks ago, the Risk Awareness online summit brought together some of the brightest minds in risk management, decision making, quantitative risk analysis, IT security, and more. You may recognize a couple of the speakers from the summit since I refer to them often. Many of the speakers though were new, even to me,…

Recent Southwest and Delta Outages Expose Huge Technology Risks

Just in the last month, two of the country’s largest airlines experienced massive technology outages that reverberated throughout their entire operation(s) during the peak summer travel season. The first outage occurred on July 20 when a computer meltdown led to the grounding of Southwest flights over a 3-day period. Although flights could land, the computer…