Blog

The number of business measures within organizations is typically growing. Measures are often added on a reaction basis to loss events that have already occurred. Wouldn't it be valuable to be able to focus on forward looking measures? In most organizations, these preventative, proactive measures are indistinguishable when grouped with reactive measures, because the metrics do not formally tie back to any commitments or risks.

What if a risk or activity changes? Organizations have no way of knowi

Governance, Risk and Compliance- Risk Management Focus

CIS-Partners, a consulting firm specializing in compliance strategies for the pharmaceutical industry, wrote an article entitled, “Don’t Get Burned”. The main focus of this article is to discuss how organizations are shifting to third-party vendors and in turn, how internal auditors need to respond to the risks associated with this process.

View article here: http://www.cis-partners.com/downloads/RiskWatch_June2011_Don'tGetBurned.pdf

CIS-Partners is a sponsor of the upcoming marcus evans Life Sc

It is inevitable for governance, risk and compliance (GRC) to converge. They are all about achieving the objectives of the organisation. For me, the greater debate is what role should an individual take as a leader in the convergence of the GRC space in an organisation?

It was no surprise that the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) Survey , which assesses the need to align risk management and internal control guidelines internationally, found the need for an alignment is strong and t

Last week, at RIMS ERM Conference 2011, we announced that LogicManager and RIMS (The Risk and Insurance Management Society) have selected Queens University Management School (QUM) to update the landmark 2008 study that quantified a direct, positive relationship between the maturity of an organization's risk management framework and its business performance.  Read the full press release here.

The 2011 update will gather data just as the 2008 study did, using real organization's data compared again

Being a risk leader in your organisation is always a challenge. More than once I have been asked "How do you get a blustering, super confident CEO to slow down and listen to what we are trying to achieve in the risk function?" Unfortunately I don't have the silver bullet, however, here are a few tips which are explored in more depth in RMP's Whitepaper titled "Risk Leadership: How to be Heard".

1. Target - Identify all the stakeholders you need to influence. Identify the order in which you wish

Two stories in the news recently have caught my eye: one involving a listeria outbreak caused by tainted cantaloupe, and the other involving Citigroup losing $285 million for defrauding investors.

In the cantaloupe story, the deadly, nationwide listeria outbreak was traced to a packing facility in Colorado operated by Jensen Farms, in which factors such as workers and trucks accidentally carrying the disease into the facility, and machinery being hard to sanitize created the environment in which

New companies with a market capitalization under USD 1 billion will now be able to opt-out of regulations within section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act for the first ten years after going public. This option was previously available to companies under USD 75 million.

Congressman Ben Quayle introduced the Startup Expansion and Investment Act to, “make it easier for emerging companies to access the capital necessary to expand and create jobs”. Quayle noted that removing one of the many regula

Lack of knowledge means more uncertainty means greater risk. Assumed knowledge can be even more dangerous than lack of knowledge and risk workshops are a safe haven for assumptions because of time limitations and dominant personalities. Here are four sources of assumptions with some tips on how to handle them during a risk workshop:

1. Seniority - When you have senior people in the room, too many people a ssume they are right, or will give them the benefit of any doubt in their mind because of th

Risk managers are charged with ensuring transparency, alignment, and forward looking views throughout the organization.  The way this is achieved is through risk assessments. 

Successful enterprise risk assessments can be a powerful tool for board and management level strategic decision making by connecting business activities to goals and identifying the risks that threaten to derail these strategic objectives.  An unsuccessful risk assessment is little more than a form over substance activity t

Reg. E ( specifically 205.11 Procedures for resolving errors
) as those in the business who know like to call it is, in short, the law gives
consumers protection and certain rights regarding claims of fraud and/ or
errors on their bank accounts.

When this provision was first
established, it was a victory for the honest consumer because some banking institutions
may have made it incumbent upon the consumer to prove they did not commit the
fraud reported in their accounts resulting in denial of their cla

I thought I would post a quick note about a recent blog post one of our clients wrote about their risk management initiative and the benefits it has brought.

In this post, the Head of Operational Risk talks about risk management becoming invisible in the organisation and the challenges of proving (to regulators) that risk management is been undertaken if indeed it does become invisible.

I think it is worth a read - http://www.hml.co.uk/blog/2011/09/23/risk-management-driving-value-from-a-long-game

Why the London riots created a greater business travel threat than a terrorist attack

Introduction to the London riots business travel threat

If you have business travel to London, you need to read this article. In this article you will discover why the London riots created a greater business travel threat than a terrorist attack. We will examine the threat posed by the London riots and demonstrations, terrorist attacks and resulting travel delays, disruptions and changes. At the end of this arti