#140 – DRIVERS OF CHANGE: BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING IMPLICATIONS – GEARY SIKICH

Featured

Untitled1-150x150Introduction

Unpredictability is the new normal. As the world approaches 7 billion in population this year, there is an ever increasing demand for food, energy and a voice in how things are run. How do these changes affect business continuity planners, you may be asking? Then simple answer is, they will have far reaching effects on how business continuity planning is conducted. No longer can we be satisfied with the assurance that our “hot site” is available, or that we can maintain business operations in the face of a pandemic; or that we can deal with the aftermath of a natural disaster. Continue reading

#139 – EXPLOITING NEW CHALLENGES IN ERM – GEARY SIKICH

Featured

UntitledHeightened Awareness or Reactive, Backwards Looking?

From financial crises to energy catastrophes to earthquakes and threats of terrorism, we hear a lot about events that challenge our ability to identify and manage risk. Unfortunately some of the things that emerge from many of these events are reactive regulatory rules and requirements. Continue reading

#138 – IN A WORLD OF ‘BLACK SWANS’, HOW DO YOU KNOW WHICH ONE TO WORRY ABOUT? – GEARY SIKICH

Featured

UntitledIntroduction

There’s always a story that explains why an event is a “Black Swan” – after the fact. Where are the “Black Swan” prognosticators before events occur? I see “after the fact” articles and statements, such as, “we knew that was coming” or “we predicted this” – all after the fact. Generally projections and predictions seem never to hold sway until after the fact. Predictions and projections never seem to occur when the prognosticator specifies — is it just that the timing never seems to work out – until after the fact. From Nostradamus to the “Bible Code” we are enamored with predictions – after the fact. Does there seem to be a theme developing here? Continue reading

#132 – UNPREDICTABILITY OF CASCADE EFFECTS IN DISASTER PLANNING – GEARY SIKICH

Featured

AAA GThe definition below was presented in a recent questionnaire conducted by Project Snowball in the European Union (EU). As used in the questionnaire the term “cascading effects” is defined as:

“Cascading effects are the dynamics present in disasters, in which the impact of a physical event or the development of an initial technological or human failure generates a sequence of events, linked or dependent from each other, that result in physical, social or economic disruption.  Continue reading

#129 – RISK ASSESSMENT: WHAT FUTURE ARE YOU PLANNING FOR? – GEARY SIKICH

Featured

UntitledIntroduction

There exists an overabundance of guidance for conducting risk assessments. Yet, it seems that we still have difficulty in getting risk assessments to reflect the appropriate level of concern for the identified risks that we are assessing. We also tend to view risk in relation to the place where we are employed and the industry that we work in. When we look at risk assessment from this perspective it should be clear that we are missing the point precisely, or at best, are being too narrowly focused, when it comes to assessing risk for our organizations. Continue reading