by Rick Nason, PhD, CFA
Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.
We all understand the power of diversity and the evils of groupthink that is caused by a lack of diversity in thought, opinions and ideas. However have you taken time to look around at the key members of the risk team at your organization? (By the way, the key members of your risk team may not be a part of the risk team.) How much diversity is there in your risk management system? When you closely examine the structure you will see two, perhaps three distinct clusters of individuals – perhaps the wise old experienced ones who hold the institutional knowledge of how things have been done for the last century, and those with advanced degrees of some shape or form that generally are quantitatively based. No offense, but that is not the most diversified of portfolios. To rectify the situation I propose at least four new hires for your organization’s risk system. Unfortunately I expect few will take my advice, but for those that do I strongly believe that there will be unexpected rewards and pleasant surprises.
In no particular order …
Each risk system should have an epidemiologist. Yes – someone who studies and understands the growth of health issues throughout a region, a country or even the world. An epidemiologist understands that things spread. They also understand how things spread and they appreciate the fact that the spread is not always by the usual causes. They also understand the models for spread are not always linear and predictable. They know about creating firewalls and how containment strategies work and also how they fail. They also know how to connect the dots going backward – not because each health crisis is similar (they’re not, they are all unique) – but so they can learn lessons that will help and provide clues when the next inevitable threat of a crisis rears its head.
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