Breaking an old business model is always going to require leaders to follow their instincts. There will always be persuasive reasons not to take a risk. But if you only do what worked in the past, you’ll wake up one day and find that you’ve been passed by.

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

Back in 1990, I was introduced to Og Mandino, a best selling American author, just three of his books, “The Greatest Salesman in the World” The Greatest Miracle in The World” and “The Greatest Secret in the World” these three books alone sold over 50 million copies, his lecture was on “How to write and Speak.” In his presentation, which had been a tradition for more than 40 years, was posted on YouTube not long after his death in 1996. In it, he explains the relationship among three critical elements of any level of success: knowledge (K), practice (P) and talent (T).

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Economics concerns itself with the determination of the most logical and effective use of resources to meet private and social goals for some form of benefit.  While primarily concerned with industry and business, its concepts of opportunity cost, supply and demand, present value, and mutual interdependence economics is also applicable to email; one of our most utilised forms of communication but, possibly, the most hated. [Read more…]

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

A Hybrid Methodology combining the speed and flexibility of Agile and the structure of Waterfall is feasible and practical. I base my opinion on the research I have done. I recently presented a Webinar to Project Management Institute (PMI) members on how to merge Agile and Waterfall to achieve a Hybrid methodology. The focus of this paper is to address the greatest risk to a company in implementing the new methodology i.e., acceptance of it. I addressed how to accomplish the merger to achieve a Hybrid method in a paper I wrote and posted on LinkedIn in May

Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.||
Jimmy Carter – U.S. President

Working It in VUCA time emphasizes Risk Based, Problem Solving (RBPS) and Risk Based, Decision Making (RBDM), which are the essence of self-management, execution, career resilience, and career agility.

Years ago, our mantra was risk management should be part of the tool box of all engineers.  Why?  Engineers live and work in the world of uncertainty and risk.  Then things changed.  In VUCA time, we say that risk is the entire toolkit and lens for ALL work and living in VUCA time.  McKinsey, the global consulting firm, explains the connection between problem solving and decision making:

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

Interest in risk culture has been growing since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. It is a topic that is getting more and more spotlight.

Regulatory authorities are demanding that financial institutions improve their ‘risk culture’. Workplace health and safety authorities are urging organisations to improve their ‘safety culture’. Everyone is talking about having a ‘customer experience culture’. And the list goes on.

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

Mental Health Awareness week is fast approaching. This year [2022] it is from 9th-15th May, and the theme is Loneliness, Anna Neagle is right, in her book Cultivating and being happy in our own company is important, but even the most introverted among us benefit from human connection and where increasingly people have started working from home, or in a hybrid home/workplace setting, we need to proactively seek that connection out.  Connection can be with our close circle, or even from small talk with strangers the research shows that both are helpful for our well-being. [Read more…]

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

“Department of Defense (D0D) acquisition must improve program while working within budgetary constraints. The DoD community shows an interest in utilizing Agile methodologies, but struggles to reap Agile’s benefits. They encountered challenges including the historically built-up processes that enforce heavy-weight oversight, the outdated, manufacturing focused Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) provided in DoD Handbook: Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) for defense Material Items (MIL-STD-881C), and the inability of traditional waterfall-based process to accommodate iterative development.

There are lots of lessons to learn from Amazon. Never stop innovating or questioning the fundamentals of your business. Disrupt yourself before others do.
Brad Stone – Journalist & Author

Consulting firms, academics, and consultants are developing models for the Future of Work.   Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) developed a scenario called the Future of Work: A Journey to 2022.  The premise of the study is: “disruptive innovations are creating new industries and business models, and destroying old ones.”[i]  PwC outlined three distinct worlds of work: Blue, Green, and Orange.

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

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report found that only 21% of employees are engaged at work and 44% of employees experienced a lot of stress on the previous day – both findings are up 1% from 2021.

In one of the largest studies of burnout, Gallup found the biggest source was “unfair treatment at work.” That was followed by an unmanageable workload, unclear communication from managers, lack of manager support and unreasonable time pressure.

Disengagement and stress in workplaces are good indicators of an organisation’s workplace climate. They can also provide insights into potential issues with the organisation’s culture.

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

If your business is going to survive, you must be able to read and react to changes in your markets and continuously improve your competitive position.  It’s more important now than it’s ever been.

SWOT is a model often employed to characterize a company’s competitive position in terms of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.  If a competitor creates a new offering that you can’t match, that’s a weakness.  If you have one that they can’t match, it’s a strength. 

Guest Post by Annette Davison Ph.D (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

According to the definition in ISO 31000, risk is the impact of uncertainty on [achieving] your objectives. Of course, this impact can be both negative or positive. ISO 31000 states the following:

“Clause 6.4.2 Risk identification: The organisation should identify risks, whether or not their sources are under its control.

Clause 6.4.3 Risk analysis: The effectiveness of existing controls.”

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

There are two basic types of contracts applied to development projects. They are Firm Fixed Price (FFP) and Cost-Plus (CP). Each type has a number of different variations shown in Table 1. FFP contracts are for projects with mature technology, less uncertainty, and more predictability. CP contracts are for projects with new technology, a lot of uncertainty, and less predicability. There are other types of contracts but are out of scope for this paper.