Franco Oboni interviewed by an Italian journalist

Franco Oboni interviewed by an Italian journalist

This blog post is a summary of an interview released by Riskope’s  Franco Oboni in Italy.

Q1 Could you please define risk management and explain its scope?

Risk Management in Riskope’s day-to-day practice is a scientific, rational approach based on over twenty years of applied research. It allows our clients to optimize their resources, all of them, including the “hidden ones”, and finally “boldly go where – sorry for the Star-Trek hint here– no competitors have gone before”. At the end, the goal is to make better, winning decisions.

Q2 What is a risk? Is it different from a catastrophe?

Technically risks are the product of a hazard (hazard example: the lamp right above you head, characterized by the likelihood of falling and the energy at impact) by its consequences (what’s the “value” of your head, the chair you’re sitting on, cleaning-up the room, etc.). A catastrophe is a potential or occurred hazard hit with very significant consequences. Note that some minor hazards can generate by domino effects, long chains, very large consequences. There is no way to take shortcuts …either one develops serious holistic approaches, or one ends-up looking like a clown, sooner or later.

Q3 Any advice on the rules to follow for risk assessments?

Beside following the general principles of well recognized international codes I would recommend to download from our website “Riskope 20 rules for good Risk Assessments”, or glossary as a starting point.

Dr. F. Oboni, Ph.D. President Riskope

Q4 Any advice for young professionals?

To be a good risk assessor or risk manager one needs to foster and permanently maintain a vast industrial and social culture. Always think about the unthinkable, yet remain rational and unbiased.

Q5 what are the key points of Riskope’s courses, short films, etc.?

The “latest” (things evolve quickly in this world…) are:

a) industries and governments have to stop biasing public opinion with poorly made risk assessments … public has the mean to bring very painful punishments in the form of protests, boycotts, project refusal, etc.
b) Social and indirect consequences of potential scenarios have to be fully evaluated. Oversimplified, censoring and biasing solutions do not work anymore in front of public opinion and many stakeholders.
c) Companies have to develop a vision centered on the “client”, evaluate risks not only from a corporate standpoint, but also from the point of view of the users and neighbors. Customer experience approaches have to be linked to a 360 holistic view of corporate risks.

Q6 Lately Riskope published a post on “risk management” at the times of the Roman Empire: could you expand on that?

Today we live in democracies where everyone can express his or her point of view: if industrialists and governments do not communicate risks, the public “takes away, or does not “give” the social license to operate”. That can generate catastrophic consequences. During the Roman Empire era, budgets were not discussed, if an emperor decided to invest in “pharaonic”, more of less giustifiable infrastructure, no one was there to vote against…work was conducted by slaves….I prefer today!

Q7 what is the state of Risk Management in Italy?

I do not want to fall in the trap of silly stereotypes, but Italy is, at least in this arena, behind with respect to other countries. Too much prestige and attention is given to the few that, guided by instinct, succeed, good for them, and the thousands that fail are quickly forgotten and remain unaccounted. Italian industries (and the government) would do way better with proper risk and crisis management, proper communication plans.

Q8 …so what are crises?

Crises are an extension of hazards and risks…situations evolve to crisis when there is a strong impact on the public opinion, clients. A well managed crisis, however, can bring positive results…just do not try it at home…without professional supervision.

Q9 ….any practical application? What is ORE?

We have dealt many times with this subject, so in order to avoid repetitions, here is a list of links within this blog:

Investing-in, Lending-to or Managing a Corporation: to what extent does the point of view influence the ERM decision making process ?

Business Intelligence, Asset Management and Risk (Assessment) Based Decision Making.

What to do instead than common practice PIGs and FMEA

Tagged with: catastrophe, good risk assessor, Hazard, holistic approaches, optimize resources, Risk Management, winning decisions

Category: Consequences, Hazard, Optimum Risk Estimates, Risk analysis, Risk management, Tolerance/Acceptability, Uncategorized