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Wall Street and the risks of tailings dam failures

Wall Street and the risks of tailings dam failures Wall Street and the risks of tailings dam failures have been the object of numerous discussions in this blog. A bit more than two years ago we published this. We included a review and a short video from a course we gave in Brazil (Minas Gerais) in 2013, two years prior to the Bento Rodrigues (Samarco mine) dam disaster. We stated that “someone” would soon go to jail for a failed…

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Canadian CEOs are looking to improve measurement, risks communication

Canadian CEOs are looking to improve measurement, risks communication in various corporate areas as stated in a recent PWC report. Key risks rank as number 1 in the measurement category while organizational purpose and values are the first in the communication side. We are not surprised by this “changes”. CEOs are realizing that risk assessments based on FMEA, risk matrix, and other Probability Impact Graphs (we like to call them PIGs)  only clutter their horizon, leaving them struggling, and realize…

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1 way to reduce the number of Due Diligence blunders (DD) in Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) and other transactions

In this post we look at the 1 way to reduce the number of Due Diligence blunders (DD) in Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) and other transactions. Due Diligence Due Diligence (DD) is ubiquitously considered to significantly contribute to informed decision-making. That’s because it enhances the amount and quality of information available to decision makers to evaluate “all” costs, benefits, and risks of, for example, an acquisition, merger or an investment (Chapman, 2006). Due diligence definition is “reasonable steps taken by a…

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4 tricks in the bag to introduce beneficial randomness in risk assessment (hazard identification) interviews

In our last blogpost we discussed the “Daddy what’s that?” attitude. We adopt it during our site visits and interviews to disrupt workers’ (or stakeholders) complacency. That attitude introduces that randomness that psychological tests have shown to be so important. Over the years the “Daddy what’s that?” attitude has brought incredible benefits to our clients and great professional satisfaction to us. Our goal is not to perform an audit, it is not a policing act. All we want to achieve…

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Randomness and disruption are good medicines in risk assessment.

We recently saw Tim Harford’s TED talk entitled “How Frustration can Make us more Creative”. During the talk he reports psychological tests have shown that students who received handouts written with “difficult-to-read fonts” did better than students with “easy fonts” handouts! Those tests show that “a little difficulty” leads to better results because it slows down the students and forces them to think more. He then cites complex problem solving, which general consensus conside to require a step by step…

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