Memorial Day 2024: "Always be Ready"...

In America, our Memorial Day is a holiday to remember. A day to reflect on all those Americans who have died fighting for our freedom.

Growing up the young son of a U.S. Marine, our home always had our flag flying on Memorial Day.

Yet it wasn’t until a relocation 30 years later, that took our own new family to Northern Virginia and that provided the real understanding of this remembrance day and for it to truly sink in.

Then as a grown adult, walking through Arlington Cemetery toward the “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier” on a May weekend in 1997 with our daughter (8) and son (7), we could feel the real emotions of it come forth.

Seeing a sea of gravestones walking up the path gave us a better understanding of our service members and their ultimate sacrifice, it was also enhanced by watching the “Changing of the Guard” ceremony.

Overlooking the beautiful grounds facing towards the distant Washington Memorial and overlooking our Nations Capital from that hill in Arlington, Virginia is just so epic.

As our tears were quickly wiped away, looking at the sunrise East on that early morning, the jets from Reagan Airport roared in the background.

As an American, someday you too, must do the same.

How can you begin to truly appreciate the historical journey we have endured as a nation, preserving your freedom and our way of life in America?

The fallen have helped ensure your ability to grow up in a country like no other. A place where you might see your own children find their destined path in life, with all the opportunities that lay before them.

Walking that day among the headstones and almost a decade later, while attending a burial ceremony of a colleague in Section 60, it really hit me.

"Watching an officer hand a folded U.S. Flag to Neal’s Mother that sky blue day, was a vivid reminder of why we are so blessed to be born in these United States of America and protected by such brave Americans of allFirst Responders."

On this Memorial Day 2024, look at our U.S. Flag waving in the wind, think about just those buried on the 624 acres of Arlington and now multiply that, across all of the other Veterans Cemeteries in America.

With such brave Men and Women to defend us over our nations 248 years, to preserve our way of life, in your own home town, we are so very grateful.

Thank you...Godspeed!

Trust Decisions: EO of ORM...

 In our most uncertain times over the past few years, it is again time to revisit several key factors of Operational Risk Management (ORM) within our Global Critical Infrastructure organizations.

Think of examples like Maersk or Boeing and UnitedHealth Group or Silicon Valley Bank.

Into the future, our Risk, Security and Controls personnel shall have equal power with the executives who are responsible for bringing in the revenue.

This means that the future power-base of the Sales and Marketing teams would need to also be on par with the Internal Audit, Security and Risk Management executives.

This internal culture shift is harder to achieve than one would think.

The ego's aside, the people who make it their job to worry about potential losses, look over the horizon and to mitigate risks day in and day out, are just not used to warning everyone each day to every alert, each instance or possible threats.

It is because everybody loves to hear that the business has been won, the competition defeated and the company just closed the biggest "Deal" in it's history. Let the spin doctors in Marcom get the Press Releases flying!

Not the doom and gloom.

It has been said before, the tone starts at the top.

The CEO and Board of Directors who are cognizant of the necessity for effective risk management objectives must also create a balanced power-base at the top to balance the "Revenue Generators" with the “Risk & Loss mitigators.”

So who are some of these people who deserve a greater exposure to this new born culture shift:

• _Director of Information Security promoted to CISO. (Chief Information Security Officer)

• _Director of Corporate Facilities to CSO. (Chief Security Officer)

• _Director of Regulatory Affairs to CCO. (Chief Compliance Officer)

• _Director of Privacy to CPO. (Chief Privacy Officer)

• _Director of Human Resources to CHO. (Chief Humanity Officer)

If the CEO thinks that this is too many chiefs in the "C" Suite, then what about the idea of creating the:

Executive Office of Operational Risk Management (ORM)

This would be on par with the Chief Financial Officer and might even include the Chief Information Officer.

The new EO of ORM would now be on the same level of power with the EVP of Sales or Marketing and beyond the Chief Operations Officer (COO).

They would be laser focused on mitigating a spectrum of corporate threats, implementing relevant employee education and determining the true effectiveness of any organizational risk controls.

Just not so much on the effectiveness of sales incentives and corporate promotions or the uptime of corporate marketing processes.

So what does someone such as Sherron Watkins, the former VP of Corporate Development at Enron Corporation think the moral is?

You've been asked this one numerous times Sherron, I'm sure, but what's the moral of the story?

“Being an ethical person is more than knowing right from wrong. It is having the fortitude to do right even when there is much at stake.”

Mothers: Brave & Resilient...

Growing up in a small town in the Midwest USA, our Mom was an only child.

Anne was a mother who was so devoted to her four kids in so many ways.

Being a Mom in those early days was about getting you off to the bus stop in the morning, and being there when you walked home from the bus stop in the afternoon.

We had just enough time to get home, drop our books and then head out into the neighborhood on our bike to our friends house or down to the beach on Goguac Lake.

A few hours later, it was about the home dinner routine just after 6:00PM, when Dad walked in the door from his HQ job with a regional restaurant chain.

After dinner, it was time for our homework and baths/showers before bedtime.

Sound familiar?

Moms really are so amazing. They are Gods greatest creation and over time we all witness the extraordinary capabilities of a Mother.

Our particular Mom was a proud Pi Phi at Northwestern University yet her real passion was becoming an Artist. To this day, she still has her oil paintings on our walls in our Living Room.

As young kids sitting on the floor in one of her Art Studio rooms or the corner of a basement, we would watch her paint on a large canvas with colorful oils and gluing various items to give a collage effect. Later...

• _ Mom was also there when we all swam across Goguac Lake in the "Husky Muskie" swimming event each summer, cheering us on with her fingers crossed behind her back.
• _ Mom was there to help Dad with maintaining the yard on weekends before they headed out to a Saturday night party with friends at the nearby Country Club.
• _ Mom was there to pick us up after our 6 weeks at summer camp in another state.
• _ Mom was also quite the snow skier and not to far behind us, on the challenging ski runs of Apres Vous mountain in “Jackson Hole” on our Christmas vacations.

Mothers are just so resilient. They are incredibly versatile. Mothers always want to make sure you are never hungry and when you cry, they will do what ever it takes to make you feel better.

On this Mothers Day 2024, we are thinking of you Mom…it has now been a decade since she went to heaven.

“Happy Mothers Day” to all of the other bravest Moms on our Earth…

Reputation Risk: Is Murphy to Blame?

Any board member or executive today is well aware of the direct impact of an adverse event or significant business disruption can have on shareholder value and customer confidence. When it does happen, how many people just throw up their hands and shout, Murphy's Law!

"Murphy's Law ("If anything can go wrong, it will") was born at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949 at North Base.

It was named after Capt. Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on Air Force Project MX981, (a project) designed to see how much sudden deceleration a person can stand in a crash."

Murphy is all about managing the "What if's" and planning for their possibility.

More than one business has been subjected to the Law's of Murphy whenever a complex and logistical project or program is underway.

If you are one of those corporate executives who has been unable to use your security badge the Monday after the big office move, you are not alone.

The question is not that it could happen, it's what impact will it have on employee satisfaction the day it happens, and beyond.

In your future planning to mitigate the Operational Risks associated with Murphy and your reputation, we are reminded of a few of our favorite Murphy's Laws:

1._Computer systems are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable. Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable.

2._If there is a possibility of several things going wrong the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.

3._A difficult task will be halted near completion by one tiny, previously insignificant detail.

4._High speed chases will always proceed from an area of light traffic to an area of extremely heavy traffic.

5._Every emergency has three phases: PANIC... FEAR... REMORSE.

Do you think you're spending too much time with your team planning? You haven’t.

Success in your organization doesn't happen because everything goes according to the plan. It happens because you were prepared when things go wrong.

The organizations whose team has planned for every possible scenario and trained together in live simulations will become the most successful.

Their missions will be accomplished on time and within budget.

Incidents of different severity and frequency are happening around you and your organization every day.

Would your employees know what an incident looks like let alone know what to do next to mitigate the risk to them and the organization?