CERM® Risk Insights

Guest Post by Geary Sikich (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

On 10 August 2020 the US Midwest experienced a Derecho that brought widespread devastation to many areas.  A Derecho is a widespread, long-lived, straight-line wind storm that is associated with a fast-moving group of severe thunderstorms known as a mesoscale convective system.  Derechos can cause hurricane-force winds, tornadoes, heavy rains, and flash floods.  As depicted below the 10 August 2020 Derecho spanned serval states over a 12 hour period.

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Guest Post by Patrick Ow (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Have faith to seize on opportunities that come your way (but the risk is within us!)

Everyone has opportunities. But it is up to us to seize the opportunities that come our way!

There will be opportunities to build lives, to better ourselves, or to serve the community.

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Guest Post by Andrew Sheves (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Often, the end of the risk assessment feels like the end of the process and things start to ease off. Unfortunately, this is when the real work begins because, now that you have identified and prioritized your risks, you need to do something about them.

There are several options when it comes to dealing with a risk but it’s risk treatments I want to focus on here. These often go askew when mitigation measures aren’t designed carefully. This wastes resources and the risks aren’t reduced.

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Guest Post by James Kline (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

In several pieces for Insights, I have discussed the decline of ISO 9001 certifications, the internal and financial problems ASQ is experiencing and the implications for the quality profession.  Recently I was on the ASQ website. There are several references to Quality 4.0.  This article will look at Quality 4.0 and its implications for the Quality Profession. It will also provide an update on ASQ’s financial problems and the possibility it will declare bankruptcy. 

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Guest Post by Robert Pojasek (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

The initial journey to create “sustained success” got off to a difficult start in 1987 when the intent was for quality managers to implement ISO 9004 followed by ISO 9001 for certification purposes. ISO 9004 was viewed as being associated with TQM.  The extra work that was needed to fulfill TQM led organizations to use ISO 9001:1987 alone to certify their processes.

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Guest Post by John Ayers (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Today, there is a lot of attention and discussion regarding future work. How will new technology impacts jobs? What will it look like? What jobs will be eliminated? What will the future jobs look like? How should I prepare?

It is difficult to identify with any accuracy what jobs will be eliminated and what new jobs will be available. My advice is to focus on skills. What skills will help ensure job security in the future?  This is the real question.

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Guest Post by Andrew Sheves (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

“Well, there was the kidnapping. Is that something you’re interested in?”

It was our last day of a week-long site security survey. We were meeting with the site manager to wrap up our visit but this was the first time we had heard anything about something as serious as this.

So yes, a kidnapping was something we were very, very interested in learning about….

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Guest Post by Patrick Ow (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Organisations cannot afford to have a faulty strategy, a faulty strategy execution, or both. Getting them right is vital for their survival especially in today’s crisis and economic downturn.

Businesses survive and thrive by taking risks. They falter when risks and opportunities are not managed effectively.

For organisations to execute their chosen strategy and achieve their strategy-focused objectives, risks and opportunities resulting from the implementation of their strategy must be differentiated from the risks and opportunities posed by the strategy itself. They do so by embedding risk management into their strategy planning and execution.

When risk management is effectively embedded in strategy planning and execution, corporate leaders will know the shortcomings of their chosen strategy while identifying those strategic objectives that may be at risk during their implementation.

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Guest Post by John Ayers (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Businesses take risks to pursue opportunities. What is your risk appetite? This question has been asked by companies for years. Risk appetite is the amount and type of risk an organization is able to support in the pursuit of business objectives. Examples of successful high risk appetite companies are: Amazon; Uber; and Tesla.

Risk appetite can be applied to your personal life as well especially today to thrive in changing times. Two stories of individuals with different risk appetite are presented below to illustrate how much you want to take can affect your life especially in retirement years. [Read more…]

Guest Post by Daniel Burrus (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

The predictability of disruption as an innovation accelerator is a central component of the Anticipatory Organization Model, focusing closely on how Anticipatory Organizations and individuals can look at disruption and see enormous opportunities. [Read more…]

Guest Post by Patrick Ow (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Steve Jobs envisioned a future state with computers on every worker’s desk. It will be a progressive culture where technology creates more opportunities for employees and a workplace without secretaries.

The future-state for Jobs was about “building tools that amplify a human ability”. He used the word “tools”, not “computers”, at the start of Apple’s life, which became hugely successful.

That is why Apple came up with the iPod, iPhone, and iTunes. These tools revolutionised the way we listen to music. Many people didn’t know they wanted an iPad until Apple showed them these tools. [Read more…]

Guest Post by James Kline (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

In June 2019, the Association for Federal Risk Management publish a document entitled: “Getting Ahead of Risks Before They Become Government Failures: An Imperative for Agency Leaders to Embrace Enterprise Risk Management”.  The document states: “Agencies are under increasing pressure to perform their missions more effectively and efficiently, while the types of challenges that government confronts are growing more complex.

Agency leaders are expected to keep program and operations on track by getting ahead of risks before they turn into problems.” (1) [Read more…]

Guest Post by Andrew Sheves (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

A decision point is a moment when a significant choice presents itself and the decision made will result in a significant change of course that cannot be undone easily. Moreover, that same choice or option is unlikely to reemerge in the future. The essential elements are that the decision is significant, non-repeatable, and non-reversible.

The problem is that decision points don’t always announce themselves as clearly as the examples above suggest. Sometimes, the decision point looks a lot like other, similar moments except the context or consequences are very different. At other times, the decision point might get overlooked, mixed in with other less critical choices amongst a flood of activity. So it can be easy to overlook or miss the decision point. [Read more…]

Guest Post by Stephen Miller (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Much is being written these days about the future of work and the problems it presents. This piece presents one way we could manage this constantly evolving situation.

The world is changing rapidly in so many ways, primarily, but not limited to technology, geopolitics and climate change. There is no attempt to assign priorities here; these factors are all intimately connected and affect the outcome in concert. [Read more…]

Guest Post by Andrew Sheves (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

The point of risk management is to understand and react to the threats and opportunities that might affect your business.  The problem is that risk management can often become dislocated from the mainstream business processes.  Instead of being integrated into the organization, risk management takes place in a parallel but separate workstream: one that decision-makers dip into occasionally but generally look at as a specialized, technical process. [Read more…]