Sunday, June 5, 2011

Graduation

by Rick Nason, PhD, CFA

Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.

www.RSDsolutions.com

info@RSDsolutions.com 

 

Recently the convocation for the MBA program at Dalhousie University where I am an Associate Professor of Finance was held.  Graduation is always a big day; as students celebrate their success at getting through the program and excitedly start their working careers.

 

Convocations also bring about graduation speeches with their usual message about how graduation is the end of one chapter of one’s life and the beginning of a new chapter.  There is also the usual talk about how one should never stop learning.  Fortunately for the students, but unfortunately for my blog, our speaker yesterday at Dalhousie (Dr. Jack Duffy) said none of those things which I plan to pick up on in this blog.  (For those interested, Dr. Duffy’s excellent and amusing (and bless his soul short) talk is available on the Dalhousie website.  But back to my blog …

 

Just like as in the usual graduation speeches, those of us in the risk management profession need to realize that we can never stop learning and each new debacle (and there will be new debacles) will begin a new chapter in the life of the risk manager.  But I wonder how many of us remember to heed these truisms (just as Dr. Duffy speculated that one would forget his speech.)  Getting a risk management degree – or certification – is just the beginning and not the end of risk learning. 

 

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