Advanced Techniques, Tools

Be honest – have you ever done something that you soon realized was a real rookie mistake? Me raising my hand… Considering the nature of ERM’s role to ask questions and challenge assumptions (often during conversations with executives), it can be argued that, in at least some cases, the expectations bar for risk professionals is…

On the surface, outsourcing a support function seems to offer the path of least resistance. Taking this path for a variety of operational areas is certainly tempting and may actually be the best option in many circumstances…but as naturalist and author Henry David Thoreau somewhat cynically puts it – “the path of least resistance leads…

If you were to ask what constitutes a well-rounded, mature ERM program that delivers strategic value to the organization, many would say robust key risk indicators (KRIs) would certainly be at or near the top of the list. Writing in the book Enterprise Risk Management: Today’s Leading Research and Best Practices for Tomorrow’s Executives, Deloitte…

If you work with a publicly-traded company or otherwise follow financial news, you’re undoubtedly familiar with ESG, which can best be described as a “set of standards” for evaluating a company’s track record on an array of Environmental, Social, and Governance issues. Over the last decade or so, ESG has become a significant concern for…

It’s clear from commentary and my blog’s web traffic data that risk appetite is considered to be the most challenging and controversial parts of ERM. To learn more about these differing perspectives, I invite you to check out this article that includes commentary from various thought leaders. We are always trying to better understand the…

To save time, money, or both, many of us have the tendency to re-purpose tools and processes for something they weren’t originally intended for. Depending on the circumstances, this approach sometimes works … Take, for example, a client who uses a system called Jira designed for facilitating IT help requests. With a few tweaks, this…

If there’s one thing I have come to appreciate in my life, it’s how there can be so many perspectives and wildly differing opinions around a given topic, be it politics, religion, sports, or even something as inane road maintenance in a neighborhood association (don’t ask!). In the risk management world, few other topic garners…

For this week’s post, I would like to share an article written for Carrier Management, a quarterly journal targeting executives in the property & casualty insurance industry. Although examples are specific to the insurance industry, the advice and insights are applicable to any organization. Whether formally documented or not, every organization is going to have…

Too often, we get so consumed with the day-to-day that we forget to take a step back to look at the bigger picture. In our personal lives, this could take the form of being too hurried going from one thing to the next that we don’t stop for a moment and take time to just…

In the manufacturing world, retooling machinery for a different purpose is a common practice. Once a machine becomes worn out, obsolete, or the product is no longer in demand, engineers can modify the equipment for another purpose and thus save the company tens of thousands, even millions of dollars. The best example of this on…