An Avatar can be either an embodiment (for example: “the Buddha is an avatar of the god Vishnu”) or the personification of a familiar idea (for example “the embodiment of hope”; “the incarnation of evil”, etc.). So it is fitting to say that Decision makers are Hamlet’s modern age Avatars. Hopefully they do not have to deal with a nasty uncle who murdered their father and married their mother, but often have to find answers to critical questions, which certainly…
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The New ISO 31000 Risk Management Principles and Guidelines’ comes at the end of a four-year development period, during which up to 60 experts, representing 30 countries, worked within an ISO international technical committee. The ISO 31000 Guidelines are designed for a wide range of risk management practitioners, experienced or novice, and for those responsible for risk management oversight who are interested in benchmarking their risk management organisation and practices against a recognized international reference. ISO 31000 describes voluntary risk management…
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We have posted many times on the need to develop proper financial comparisons between business alternatives. Going green, emission-free or clean tech is becoming more and more interesting, for many businesses and organizations, especially since enticing financing opportunities are offered by governments around the world. But beware, though clean tech does not mean to stop thinking. Generous financing should not be an excuse for lowering your guard and place a bet on projects, alternatives, developments that may haunt your sustainability, instead of enhancing…
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Risk Based Decision Making We would like to show you two examples of Phase I Risk Based Decision Making. Phase I means that a preliminary decision is made based on Risk Prioritization alone. That is without financial comparative evaluations of the alternatives using CDA-ESM. In other words without evaluating the long term cost of the alternatives including upside and downside risks. When users include risks in long term cost estimates they refer to the procedure as risk adjusted cost The…
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Now it’s time to test the Risk and Crisis Evaluation Methodology we published back in 2008 on the BP Gulf of Mexico spill. We originally presented the methodology in our book (F. Oboni & C. Oboni, Improving Sustainability through Reasonable Risk & Crisis Management, 2007). Risk and Crisis Evaluation Methodology Let’s start with the probability of the spill. At Riskope we: are not oil experts, so can only assume that this accident, that various voices in the media declared as…
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A few phrases from the paper named Risk-management lessons from the volcanic ash cloud are copied below in italics, then commented: …Conventional thinking about risk management holds that risks are mainly local and routine—that it is possible to list all the negative events that could happen, determine their probability based on past experience… Risk-management lessons from the volcanic ash cloud Two common wrong behaviors are indicated in the phrase above: 1) risks to be included in a risk assessment are not…
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Today we discuss how to rationally select among alternatives in long term projects with CDA-ESM. This post is companion to the already published: How to get the most out of (Vegetable) Waste Oil for your Small or Medium Business. How to rationally select among alternatives in long term projects with CDA-ESM CDA-ESM can help you to select the best option. CDA-ESM is about rationally select among alternatives in long term projects with CDA-ESM. We use an ”average sized” fast food restaurant…
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We will discuss today why Force Majeure clauses in contracts should be optimized to reduce costs and litigation potential. Force Majeure clauses in contracts should be optimized to reduce costs and litigation potential. Indeed, any time spent in the aftermath of a mishap “discussing” if the event was Force Majeure, negligence or had other causes severely impacts operations. In addition it can significantly increase the costs of consequences. Thus the need to optimize the Force Majeure formulation. If it was…
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