CRO Spock

by Rick Nason, PhD, CFA

Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.

www.RSDsolutions.com

info@RSDsolutions.com

 

How would a hyper rational Spock do as a risk manager?  “That’s a very human thing to do Captain Kirk.  Most irrational!”  Face it, Spock would bomb as a CRO.  Humans are humans, and Spock was … (actually – I don’t know, most of my Spock knowledge comes from watching Big Bang Theory).  The point is that organizations are made up of humans, and industries are made up of humans, and economies are made up of humans.  Why do we assume everyone is hyper rational like Spock and design regulations and risk management systems as if they are.

ArtScience Museum

by Rick Nason, PhD, CFA

Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.

www.RSDsolutions.com

info@RSDsolutions.com

 

Many of you might think that I have a typo in my title.  I do not.  On my recent trip to Singapore where I delivered a three day seminar for Asia Bankers on Derivatives, I had the opportunity to drop into the ArtScience Museum at the Marina Bay Sands Singapore.  http://www.marinabaysands.com/singapore-museum/ 

 

The main reason I went to the Museum was to see the Andy Warhol exhibit, which was fantastic, with one of the best museum commentaries I have listened to in quite a while.  The building in which the ArtScience Museum is housed is really fantastic – a striking piece of architecture, and if you take the time to examine it from the inside you discover it is an even more fascinating structure.

 

However what caught my attention and got me thinking was the name of the institute – which is more fully explained if you visit the third floor.  The ArtScience in the name of the museum is intentional.  In a plaque leading up to the third floor exhibits on creativity you read “ArtScience: A Journey Through Creativity opens a dialog about art, science and the symbiotic relationship between them”

 

As risk managers, we also need to open up a dialogue between the art and science of our field, and recognize the symbiotic relationship between them.

The Other Coast

 

by Rick Nason, PhD, CFA

Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.

www.RSDsolutions.com

info@RSDsolutions.com

 

Those who know me know that I never lost my childhood love of comic strips.  I was never into the action comics like many of my friends, but the “funnies” were always, and still are, my favorite part of the paper.  I also have quite an extensive collection of comic book treasuries and collections.

 

One of the strips I like is The Other Coast by Adrian Raeside.  It is one of those comics that take a gentle swipe at our too politically correct lives and the built in stupidity that it sometimes involves. Today’s (July 23) strip takes a swipe at both risk managers and regulators.  Hopefully we all see the humour, as well as the lesson in it. 

 

Keep up the good work Adrian.