Nassim N. Taleb, Daniel G. Goldstein, and Mark W. Spitznagel discuss risk management and short comings in approaches in the October 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review (subscription required). They offer up six mistakes in the way we think about risk: 1. We think we can manage risk by predicting extreme events. 2. We … Read more »
Category: Enterprise Risk Management
The Four Areas of Risk and Knowledge
When thinking about risk, I break things into four quadrants. There are things we know and there are things we don’t know as individuals. I then slice slice that further again with the things we know and the things we don’t know as part of the larger organization or conscious state. Our sweet spot is … Read more »
Managing Risk in the Financial Sector
On Sept. 16, 2009, Compliance Week and Navigant Consulting presented an exclusive editorial roundtable about compliance practices at financial services firms at The Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Boston. (Apparently not so exclusive, considering I was able to get in. I even made it into one of the article’s pictures. – That’s me eating my fingers … Read more »
Redefining Risk
Maybe we should define risk as what needs to go right, instead of what could go wrong. Although I would like to claim credit for this view of risk, it came from James Bone of Global Compliance Advisors, LLC. I met James at a Compliance Week round table last week discussing risk management and regulatory … Read more »
What Went Wrong at Lehman?
Complinet interviewed David DeMuro, head of compliance at Lehman Brothers during its last days in 2008. It should come as no surprise that the warning signs were there for everyone to see but in the midst of a bubble, employees were too scared to raise their hand because there was still money to be made. … Read more »
Failure to Conduct Diligence Can Lead to SEC Sanctions
If you advertise that you have due diligence process, you had better follow that process. The Securities and Exchange Commission brought an administrative proceeding against an investment adviser for failing to follow its advertised due diligence program. The Hennessee Group promoted its process for evaluating and selecting hedge funds as the “Five Level Due Diligence … Read more »
Risk Assessment – Getting It Right
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP sponsored this webcast: Corporate leaders have long recognized that the pace of change continues to increase in velocity, thus challenging management’s execution of the business’ strategic and tactical plans. Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is a management tool that can be effective in identifying and assessing the risks that come with change and allow … Read more »
Ten Principles for a Black Swan-Proof World
Nassim Nicholas Taleb penned an opinion piece in the Financial Times: Ten principles for a Black Swan-proof world . Check out the piece for details behind each item: 1. What is fragile should break early while it is still small. 2. No socialisation of losses and privatisation of gains. 3. People who were driving a … Read more »
Ways Companies Mismanage Risk
René M. Stulz put together Six Ways Companies Mismanage Risk for the March issue of the Harvard Business Review. Professor Stulz summarizes his thoughts in that “conventional approaches to risk management present many pitfalls. Even in the best of times, if you are to manage risk effectively, you must make extremely good judgment calls involving … Read more »
Dilbert on Risk Management
Dilbert and company and looking at risk management software this week. Does any of this sound familiar? Ethical issues and bad data? Misunderstanding what it can do? Read more »