Today's post covers two of my pet subjects: risk management and personal productivity. Rather, I apply some ideas which I've become aware of reading personal productivity literature to risk management. This is an iteration of a 2009 article, but with significant changes. The missing risk management levels I've recently reread COSO ERM front to back, … Continue reading From the bottom up: four horizons of risk management
Category: Stream of Consciousness
How to get rid of internal controls’ Cinderella complex
A high degree of indifference Whenever you utter the words "internal control" in an environment where COSO is not a household word, you are likely to be confronted with a number of reactions, ranging from boredom over surprise over fear back to complete indifference. Overcoming that reaction is one of the key prerequisites for a … Continue reading How to get rid of internal controls’ Cinderella complex
Government’s role as a stakeholder to administrations and agencies
As with some of the articles published in the past week, I've rewritten an article I wrote in 2009. I am trying to integrate all articles from the past into this blog, rewriting them where that appears necessary. I am very surprised at how relevant it still feels, reading this more than three years after … Continue reading Government’s role as a stakeholder to administrations and agencies
Why sum formulas better reflect the risk appetite in calculating risk levels
How to determine a risk profile and calculate a level of risk? Introduction This is a significant rewrite and a first time write-up in English of an article I published in Dutch in May of 2009. I'm revisiting it because I had an interesting exchange with my ERM class at Solvay Brussels School last week, … Continue reading Why sum formulas better reflect the risk appetite in calculating risk levels
Ideas on a project prioritisation system for public sector projects
Introduction This is a rewrite of a post I published in November 2009 on another blog. I've reviewed and revised the text. While a number of ideas remain valid, I've made quite a number of changes. Any project executed in a public sector environment has to face - by its very nature - a high … Continue reading Ideas on a project prioritisation system for public sector projects
Independent business and the future of innovation
Following in the footsteps of our elders Up until only a few generations ago, we used to be destined to follow into the footsteps of our elders. A son of a farmer was likely to become a farmer. If your mother had a small convenience store, you were apt to enter into that trade as … Continue reading Independent business and the future of innovation
Reducing the white noise by scrutinizing your inputs
Cleaning up my Linked-In groups From recent experience: I was looking through my Linked-In feeds and noted just how much junk I found in there. Maybe I'm not selective enough, I thought. An ideal moment to clean up some of the accumulated mess that provided too high a level of white noise in recent months. … Continue reading Reducing the white noise by scrutinizing your inputs
Cooperative competition on the internet
"Competing with the best of the best" A couple of weeks ago, in Hypercritical episode 79 to be exact, Marco Arment, Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin replaced John Siracusa and exchanged ideas on a broad range of topics. Needless to say, it was less focused than Hypercritical usually is. However, great minds to come together, … Continue reading Cooperative competition on the internet
A longhand blog writing workflow on iPad and Mac
I adore writing longhand I adore writing longhand. I'm not very good at it, and I don't do it often enough, but I adore writing longhand. I crave the feeling of a good weight pen or other writing utensil and the joy of passing that over a smooth page and make an impression. Granted, my … Continue reading A longhand blog writing workflow on iPad and Mac
Cargo Cult management
A famous Feynman story I first encountered the term "cargo cult" in the late 1980's when reading one of Richard Feynman's books, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" on his quite interesting life. He actually used it in a commencement address at CalTech in 1974. In short, he refers to a practice of dogmatically executing a … Continue reading Cargo Cult management
Exploring The Black Box 