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Risk Managers are retiring. Corporations have to fight the brain drain or be faced with over-exposures to risks.

Risk Managers are retiring. Corporations have to fight the brain drain or be faced with over-exposures to risks. Because the retirement of a corporate risk manager might be the source of critical exposures. It is actually a significant risk per se: one with a high likelihood (everyone ends-up retiring), and potentially large consequences. Only well planned proactive actions can mitigate it. Indeed Risk Managers are retiring. Corporations have to fight the brain drain or face over-exposures to risks. Risk Managers are…

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The devil is in the details.

“The devil is in the details.” explore what shortcuts in risk management leads to exposures and potential liabilities. We all love rounding numbers, i.e. “erasing the decimals” by pushing the value up or down to the nearest, or more pleasing, integer. When we let our “esthetics sense”, or our will to influence our audience, dominate, we will merrily jump way more than the decimals and come out with “media friendly rounded” values such as “one million people came to the…

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Italian coal miners’ strikes

Had I realized what a life in mining would be like, I’d have head for the hills, rather than become entrenched in it. I was rather surprised to find the mural painting above. It came together with text translated above in italics. It was  on the front wall of a house in Orgosolo, in the mountain of Sardinia, one of the main islands of Italy. A few days after I took the picture, workers at the last Italian active coal…

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Close Calls and Human Biases

Close Calls and Human Biases, Near misses receive different interpretations in different countries, cultural backgrounds. Some societies consider them glorified achievements of intuitive semi-gods. In others they are just plain indicators of near failure. When near misses become repetitive, it can be assumed they are the result of a systemic flaw. Systemic flaws only require a small “twist of fate” to turn into an accident, possibly a disaster. In an industrial operation we know of, people became accustomed to a…

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