Future Risk: What is True...

On the dawn before the next large public gathering across the world, Operational Risk Management (ORM) professionals are on edge.  Readiness and contingencies are at their highest level in anticipation of any globally televised event.

The same crisis management environment exists four or more times a year within the confines of the Board Room and Executive suite.

Operating at the "Speed of Business" and effectively managing daily, weekly, and quarterly risk management tasks requires an adaptive and resilient culture.  A culture that has been born and evolved from its Genesis to a daily run rate based upon two main components.

• Trust is the first one and to many a given in any high performing environment.  To be able to trust the person to your left and to your right requires many tests.  It builds over time yet it must start with the right elements and be nurtured for it to flourish.

• The second component is far more complex.  It requires you to embark on a continuous discipline with yourself and the people to your left and right, to know "What is True."

"What is True" means one set of reality for you and perhaps something different for those around you.  Your mission is to get to a single version and reality of what is true faster than your competition, your adversary or your partner.  Survival will be a factor of your speed to understanding as a team, "What is True" and then your adaptive nature to the consequences of your actions.

Are you accountable for your outcomes?  Have you accepted the consequences of your behavior?  So what does all of this have to do with Operational Risk Management?  It has everything to do with it. The most high consequence event to any risk matrix, is the fact that people do not see themselves or others in a "True" perspective.  They are not operating in reality.

What is your willingness to bring current problems to everyone to dissect, understand and solve?  Those who continue to operate without a proactive problem-solving environment are headed towards disaster.  Surprises.  Being blind-sided.  Never saw it coming.

When you hear people saying these things.  You have someone who has not been proactive in the continuous identification of problems and communicating those problems to the team to be solved.

You see, leadership is about continuously testing, designing and improving the process or the product.  The thinkers and the doers, the blueprint and the construction, the designers and the operators must be in a synchronous harmony together.

Ask yourself; how is this movie unfolding compared to the script that was written?  How has the change and the rate of change had consequences?  What have I and my team done to adapt, by changing the design or the people to achieve the mission? 

The "Speed of Business" is the environment and the successful outcome we all seek and is captured in three words.  "What is True."

Vigilance is The Name of The Game...

President George W. Bush logged a victory in 2006 when the U.S. House of Representatives renewed the USA Patriot Act, a law that gave the FBI expanded powers to investigate terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks.

When was the last time as a CxO in your organization that you reviewed the law? Here are a few of the renewed provisions:

>Section 201 Gives federal officials the authority to intercept wire, spoken and electronic communications relating to terrorism.

>Section 202 Gives federal officials the authority to intercept wire, spoken and electronic communications relating to computer fraud and abuse offenses.

>Subsection 203(b) Permits the sharing of grand jury information that involves foreign intelligence or counterintelligence with federal law enforcement, intelligence, protective, immigration, national defense or national security officials

>Subsection 203(d) Gives foreign intelligence or counterintelligence officers the ability to share foreign intelligence information obtained as part of a criminal investigation with law enforcement.

>Section 204 Makes clear that nothing in the law regarding pen registers an electronic device that records all numbers dialed from a particular phone line stops the government's ability to obtain foreign intelligence information.

>Section 209 Permits the seizure of voicemail messages under a warrant.

>Section 212 Permits Internet service providers and other electronic communication and remote computing service providers to hand over records and e-mails to federal officials in emergency situations.

"Whether you are a government or a small business you must have a layered and defense in depth approach to the safety and security of your enterprise. You have to monitor insiders, gather intelligence and keep an eye on foreign competitors."

Key people in your organization are key targets for a spectrum of threats both physical, economic and digital. When is the last time you saw a CEO, CFO, CRO or Board Member walk down to the INFOSEC department and ask the team if they had all the tools and resources they need to do their jobs effectively.

And if they did raise their hand and say they could use some help with solutions to help combat all insider threats including intellectual property leakage, vendor collusion, financial fraud, and customer data loss. You might recommend they look at the FedRamp Marketplace.

The leaders of a medium-size community bank, Fortune 500 enterprise, Private Sector Critical Infrastructure company and local city government still have the same thing in common today as with George W. Bush 18 plus years ago…

Veterans Day 2024: Our Father U.S. Marine...

 Growing up as the first son of a U.S. Marine officer, you learn much of what it means to be a Veteran.

Loyalty. Dedication. Perseverance. Discipline. Trust. Integrity. Valor.

On this November 11, 2024 it is Veterans Day in the United States of America. A day in America to pause and to acknowledge those who made the decision to serve, in a branch of our Armed Forces.

As a young man approaching graduation of high school the Vietnam War was in full swing and conscription was a weekly discussion around the dinner table. Will your number be called?

The defense of an entire country requires a tremendous number of people to operate at home and across the entire globe.

Some veterans had the opportunity to travel across continents and were stationed in foreign countries. Our men and women were sailing across oceans on the surface and others deep undersea. They were flying whenever and wherever needed to go head-to-head with the evil people and forces in our world.

Veterans from around the USA put their lives in the hands of our country to protect our loved ones and our way of life here.

Veterans who have served our nation honorably have a real understanding of what it means to sacrifice, to work beyond exhaustion, to feel proud of becoming an expert in skills, knowledge and special activities experience.

In years past, as our colleagues waited for the hospital van to arrive on the shore of the Potomac River inside Ft. Belvoir, we prepared for the weekend warriors who wanted to go fishing.

The 501c3 we volunteered to assist would come each weekend over the summer to teach Ft. Belvoir veterans to fly fish or just try and catch a fish on that day. In the sunshine, outdoors and outside the hospital.

Years later, on one weekend when Dad was in his mid 80’s, we drove down I-95 to Quantico VA to visit the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

He could not believe all of the memories coming back to him. 90 Minutes later, as we pulled out of the parking lot to Fuller Road, we looked to the right and saw the entrance to the base where he had attended Officer Candidate School (OCS).

“Let’s go in there he commanded”. So as we approached the gate and pulled up to the Guard, then we said: “This U.S. Marine would like to enter and to drive through the base where he learned to become a First Lieutenant.

The guard asked, “Let me see your Drivers Licenses”. “OK, go ahead he said as we then drove through the gate.”

This is when it really started to sink in. Where and why our Dad learned all about being a leader of U.S. Marines and soon thereafter a devoted Father.

"On this Veterans Day in America, we say thank you."

For all that you have done to protect the American people and our United States to keep us safe…and to learn to serve with pride...