It’s here. Winning Conversations: How to turn red tape into blue ribbon. Plenty of blood, sweat but not an ounce of tears has gone into my second book. I loved writing it. I love the core message intertwined through it. You should and most definitely can show the revenue producers, the policy makers, the senior leaders that your advice is not red tape, it is in fact blue ribbon.

From my long history in the risk profession, I know how hard it is to change perceptions. Back in the early noughties w

Chief risk officers and heads of operational risk responded to a survey held by Risk.net and identified their top risk concerns. Their number one concern was IT disruption, while their second highest concern was data compromise. Why is cybersecurity risk on everyone’s mind?

For one thing, technology is an inescapable reality of every business. Even the smallest of mom and pop shops have an electronic system to make credit card transactions, while larger corporations rely on immense data centers t

Mollisvitaephobia is fear of soft skills.

Ok. You got me. I made it up by translating soft skills into Latin. Why? Because there is most definitely an ailment in organisations that needs fixing and it needs a name.

There is a bias towards technical training at the expense of soft skills training.

Want proof? How about these gems from page 86 of the APRA report into governance, culture and accountability at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).

The risk function has had an uneven (that is, an  in

Even if you have the best security on your computer network, you might have noticed that you still seem to get hacked…or worse. Ask Equifax. Why is this happening? It’s probably because a member of your staff has made it easy for cyber criminals to get inside. It’s really important that you find out who this person is, and keep in mind…it might be more than just one. And it may not even involve security technology.

Part of the problem here, is that employees who “open the door” for these criminal

Many FIs are looking to SMB lending as a source of growth, but at the same time mindful of credit risk that can increase if the loans are made with hasty underwriting. Sageworks, a financial information company that offers portfolio risk software, was just awarded the Innovation Award for Business Lending due to the company's headway into automating SMB lending processes while offering to benchmark, global cash flow analysis and other functionalities that allow FIs to quickly and accurately meas

Learning How to Test and Learn

By: MIT CISR

Author(s)

Ross, Jeanne W. and Fonstad, Nils O.

Type:

Research Briefing

Topics:

Digital Innovation

Business Agility

IT Governance

IT Investment and Portfolio Management

IT-based Business Transformation

2018-02-15

Abstract: To counter pervasive uncertainties in the business and technology environment and prioritize the most strategic innovation projects from myriad options, companies can take a test-and-learn approach to innovation investments. From our analysis of t

Is your board showing signs of being either completely over the data thing or are they frozen in time because no one has been able to give them a logical path forward? Both situations have the same cause, everyone is sitting around staring at the data tree of life, pondering all that can be, and no one is stepping up to start the process by picking the low hanging fruit.

In this 3-minute video, I explore with Corporate Demographer Dr Andrew Pratley where to find some of the low hanging fruit amon

This week, Wells Fargo launched a new ad campaign called Re-Established. The goal is to gain back customer trust after their repeat failures in risk management. It won’t work.

I’ve talked a lot about the see-through economy, and one of its major characteristics is fast-paced. Consumers and investors are constantly inundated with opinions, reviews, news, and updates at a pace that quickly outruns any ad campaign.

At this point, Wells Fargo is in too deep for a superficial ad campaign to be an effec

Most small businesses don’t put as much focus on internet security as they probably should. If you are a small business owner or manager, not focusing on internet security could put you in a bad spot. Are you believing the myths about internet security or are you already using best practices? Here’s a few of the most common myths…take a look to see where you truly stand:

Myth – All You Need is a Good Antivirus Program

Do you have a good antivirus program on your small business network? Do you thin

It takes about eight hours of someone’s time, your time, your team’s time to give a senior executive team or board 15 minutes of advice. Those 15 minutes simply can’t be wasted!

Over the last four weeks I have taken you through the four key elements of my Pathfinder Model for a winning conversation. Stand in their shoes, Paint them a picture, Tell them a story and Make them believe.

It is called the Pathfinder Model because every one of us puts up barriers to poor advice and you need to find the p

What’s worse than a vendor that suffers a data breach that exposes your sensitive customer information? The answer: A vendor that waits almost six months to tell you about it.

That’s the issue that both Sears and Delta Air Lines are facing after a malware attack on each of the company’s online chat services vendors. Hundreds of thousands of customers’ payment information was accessed, including payment card account numbers, expiration dates, names, and addresses, reports Gizmodo. Sears and Delta

You might not think about this, but identity thieves really want your child’s Social Security number. If they get this number, they can do a lot, including buying a car, renting an apartment, opening a credit card account, or getting a mortgage. The Social Security numbers of children are great for the bad guys for several reasons:

• Generally, children have a clean record
• Crooks can use these numbers to obtain credit
• Kids usually don’t check out their credit reports until they go to college or buy a

marcus evans will host the 2^nd Edition Digital Transformation in Wealth Management Conference on September 24-26, 2018 in San Francisco. This conference will provide wealth managers with practical tools for developing a consistent and firm-wide digital adoption strategy allowing them to expand their client base and offerings. Industry experts will assess the best practices for leveraging and scaling robo-advice alongside traditional advice and how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and new digital cap

A Message From Our partner:

  

The 2017 tax law reform has opened up unprecedented opportunities for corporations to focus on core business functions and increase profitability. Though most organizations will increase value for their shareholders with minimal effort, they could largely benefit from taking the chance to create transformative organizational change.

However, in order to best leverage the advantages of the tax law, corporations will first need to ensure that the data input into an

Do you have a secret self-defense weapon on hand that you don’t even know about?

Here’s a few:

Canes. Might seem obvious…but…

Your first instinct would probably be to swing the cane like a baseball bat. However, this isn’t the best way. An attacker can easily grab it, dodge it, or deflect it. Instead, take a class to learn how to correctly yield your cane.

• If you use a cane, consider taking a “cane-fu” class.
• The best cane to use is one with a strong handle.
• Don’t think that you can’t fight with your

Social media is an excellent tool for small businesses, yet, the use of social media by small business staff can definitely put the company in danger. Many small business owners and managers don’t realize this.

Recently, I was talking to employees of a credit union about what to do in a robbery. Before this presentation, police officers had staged a robbery in the same credit union. The fake robbery was so real, some of the tellers were brought to tears, thinking they were really getting robbed.

A

Does your institution need cybersecurity insurance? Is it required? If utilized, are there rules? Cybersecurity insurance can protect against financial loss in the event of a cyber incident, but there are many intricate details.

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) members have provided a joint statement to help financial institutions understand how cyber insurance impacts risk management and what institutions need to do when considering purchasing cyber insurance. The

While I am sure there is more to the story about law firm Clayton Utz and their report for AMP, but how do you think their credibility as a provider of independent advice was impacted by this simple line in this news article “Just appalling’: AMP misconduct and lies exposed”.

     “Mr Hodge told the hearing that Clayton Utz provided 25 drafts of the report to AMP which resulted in detailed changes being made, including the removal of Mr Meller's name from an earlier version of the report.”

My blog

Don’t assume you’re immune from this European regulation with huge fines

All may be relatively quiet on the regulatory front in the U.S., but this May new privacy regulations are taking effect in the European Union, which will likely impact even the most provincial U.S. financial institutions.

The E.U.’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), approved in April 2016, is much broader than the U.S.’s most well-known privacy regulations, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and the Health Insurance P