CERM® Risk Insights

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

The World Economic Forum has conducted a Global Risk Survey since 2006. This is the fifteenth survey. The responses are from 650 members of the World Economic Forum. In the preface to the 2021 Global Risk Report it is noted that: “In 2006, the Global Risks Report sounded the alarm on pandemics and other health-related risks.” (1) With this context in mind, the 2021 risk analysis “centers on the risks and consequences of widening inequalities and societal fragmentation. In some cases, disparities in health outcomes, technology, or workforce opportunities are the direct result of the dynamics the pandemic created.” (2)

This piece will review the results of the 2021 Global Risk Survey. It will also discuss some of the issues surrounding the survey.

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

While there is oftentimes a “generational war” between the young and the old in the workplace, where the divide is created by the younger generation’s familiarity with technology and the older generation’s aversion to it, the multigenerational concern that plagues all age groups is that technology will outpace humans, leaving many unemployed.

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

We obtain information through learning to become, hopefully, knowledgeable and this is achieved through the communication of data.  This communication is achieved through our five senses despite a belief by some in a mystical third-eye and the gifts of telepathy and ESP. 

Mankind’s communication abilities depend on sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell.  This basic toolbox of senses has been augmented, or some say ‘lessened’, over millennia through education and the evolution of culture and technology as our civilizations rise, and eventually, fall.

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

Greg Carroll has a graduate degree in Operations Research from Swinburne University. He has a certificate in Machine Learning from Stanford University and in Data Science from the University of Michigan. He has over thirty years’ experience in Enterprise Risk Management. He has applied risk management techniques to IT and Artificial Intelligence systems in mission critical environments like the Department of Defense and Victorian Infectious Disease Reference Laboratories.

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

In a previous article I explored how workers and employers should approach the future and opined that both would be better off if they each understood the motivations and tactics that the other would employ to further their interests.  Workers are concerned about achieving and maintaining marketability to employers and companies are concerned about acquiring the workforce they need to compete in the markets in which they do business.  I assert that understanding what’s driving the approach each side will take to achieve its aims will be crucial to competing.

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

Much like the song, “Lookin’ for Love in All the Wrong Places” sung by Johnny Lee; risk management professionals need to ask the question “Are we searching for risk in all the wrong places”?  Are risk professionals being deluded or deluding themselves by seeing risk based on media driven analysis; applying outmoded tools, models, etc. that no longer reflect the reality of risk?

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

What’s in a word?

The right word at the right time can make all the difference between a successful negotiation with an amicable agreement and collaborative banter, or a bitter and twisted tête-à-tête with an entrenched stand-off, raised hackles and, at best, fog-horn diplomacy.  But what is the ‘right word’; unfortunately, it depends on the time and place and people’s personality but one thing is almost certain, if it begins with “n” it is oftentimes not considered to be right and many consider it to be downright wrong.

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Interview by Howard Wiener of Bruce Turner (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Bruce is an active company director and audit committee chair. He is a well-respected transformational leader with deep and broad professional governance, risk, compliance and audit experience. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2015 in recognition of his significant service to public administration through governance and risk management practices, and to the profession of internal auditing.

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

Despite our collective educational establishments that purport to teach so that people can learn, ‘education’ is not necessarily learning.  Mark Twain wrote disparagingly that “Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned” and also that he never let schooling interfere with his own education.  Education is not necessarily knowledge and real learning comes from the application of theory tempered with experience which will make for better decisions and better outcomes.  Benjamin Franklin’s words from over 200 years’ ago “Tell me, I forget. Teach me, I remember. Involve me and I learn” still ring true today.

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

We cannot turn back the clocks and undo the damage the pandemic has done, but we can move forward with an anticipatory mindset and a firm plan of action. For many decades now, and in all industries, digital disruption has been on an exponential curve upward. Because the pandemic forced us to turn to technology for help on both a personal and business level, the pace of technology-driven change increased dramatically, far beyond merely exponential levels. Now that this change has been set in motion, the question remains: What do we do now?

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

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is considered an important management tool and part of good public sector governance in Australia. The Commonwealth of Australia and the states of Victoria and New South Wales have implemented ERM. In addition, the states of Tasmania and Western Australia have issued good governance frameworks which include risk management.  This piece will provide a historical overview of the risk management approach used by the Australian State of Victoria. It will then discuss the changes made in the 2020 revisions to its 2018 Victorian Government Risk Management Framework.

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

For some, the post-coronavirus “new normal” is a frightening concept that rattles their status quo, while others are taking this moment to seize new opportunities afforded to us by a global disruption, as COVID-19 has proven to be. The fact of the matter is that aforementioned opportunity is available to all of us, whether our “new normal” is unbearably difficult or extremely simple.

You may be asking yourself: How is that possible?

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

Dr. Davison has more than 30 years’ experience in environmental management, integrated water cycle management and risk assessment.  Davison has more than 30 years’ experience in environmental management, integrated water cycle management and risk assessment. She is the Principal Risk Analyst and founding Director of Risk Edge® Pty Ltd. and co-founder and R&D Manager, D2K Information Pty Ltd. She received her PhD in Environmental Biochemistry and Microbiology from Macquarie University. Her most recent book is entitled: The Application of ISO 31000 to Drinking Water Quality Risk Management: A Practical Approach. It is published by Edge Pty Ltd, Sydney Australia.

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

What does the future hold for project management?   Remote and flexible work arrangements were trends prior to COVID-19. The pandemic greatly accelerated the trends and a lot of it will be permanent well after the virus is tamed. Remote work arrangement means any work you do that dose not require commuting into an office. A flexible work arrangement are alternate arrangements or schedules from the traditional working day and week. Employees may choose a different work schedule to meet personal or family needs

This paper discusses the risks these changes will have on project management for future work. It does not present new technologies and the risks they will impose on projects. This is a subject for another paper.

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

This piece will examine how the move away from quality management to risk management in United Kingdom local governments developed and how risk management became a mandate. It will then move to the specific by looking at Cheltenham Borough Council’s risk management policy and aspects of the 2018 Audit Committee Annual Risk Management Report. It will close with some observation on where risk and quality management are being used together.

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