Becoming a risk manager can seem to be more art than science. There’s not a clear pathway from degree to junior risk manager to senior risk manager to CRO (Chief Risk Officer) in the same way that you can chart the progress from freshly minted CPA (Certified Public Accountant) to…

Security is a guiding principle for DCDR, and protecting user data has been baked in from the start. However, there’s more to data security than restricting access and managing user permissions. I’ve used the INFOSEC abbreviation CIA — confidentiality, integrity, and availability — as a guide to help determine the…

Googling ‘what is a risk manager?’ will get you variations on ‘it’s the person who manages that organization’s risks,’ which is a pretty weak answer. It’s certainly not enough to help anyone who’s just starting in the role to understand what they’re supposed to do. …

This is a very short post which should work because it’s a very simple idea. Obviously, I’m a fan of simple ( this is KISS risk management after all) but, as with lots of simple ideas, the trick is sticking to the idea and seeing it through without getting distracted. …

How can you spot the point where a risk — a thing that could occur — becomes an event that is occurring? I’d argue that you don’t need to identify the specific point of change, and you’ll waste valuable time trying to spot the exact moment of transition. …

Seven takeaways from reviewing my degree notes. — I looked back at some of my degree notes the other day and came across something I’ve been meaning to work on for a long time. (By long time, I mean about 10 years*.) It’s based on two concepts. First, the work that Brian Toft, Simon Reynolds and Barry Turner…

I realized a while back that it can be too easy to mistake ‘simple’ with ‘easy’ and I’ve been concerned that promoting a simple approach to risk management might lead people to think that this makes everything easy. Unfortunately, even though a KISS approach makes risk management easier, it doesn’t…

Sometimes, you just need to pick up other people’s slack — As risk managers, we spend a lot of time working out how to get things done. After all, the risk assessment is just the start of the process. …

How to become more proactive — Many people have a few smoke alarms dotted around their house and, to me, these are some of the most straightforward set-it-and-forget-it risk management tools you can get. You set these up and then…nothing. …