Unfortunately, many owner/CEOs and other business executives manage risk as if they were Siegfried & Roy in the lions’ cage. The situation looks controlled, safe and predictable. But every once in a while, one of the lions may try to bite your head off!
Prudent risk-taking based on a creative business strategy is central to success in our capitalistic free enterprise system, but the emphasis must be on prudent. Risk-taking, which explicitly or implicitly involves betting the ranch, should only be undertaken in the direst of circumstances or with the full knowledge and consent of the owners of the business.
The current credit markets meltdown is a prime example of what a lion can do.
In the realm of risk, unmanaged possibilities become probabilities: These data breaches and thefts are due to a lagging business culture. As CIO, I'm always looking for ways to help my team, business teams, and ad hoc measures of various vendors, contractors and internal team members. A book that is required reading is "I.T. WARS: Managing the Business-Technology Weave in the New Millennium."
The author, David Scott, has an interview here that is a great exposure: http://businessforum.com/DScott_02.html
I like to pass along things that work, in the hope that good ideas continue to make their way to me.
Posted by: John Franks | October 31, 2008 at 12:46 PM