Scale

*/By Rick Nason, PhD, CFA
Partner, RSD Solutions Inc/*

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It is a beautiful March day – cool but clear.  I am lucky enough to live
on a lake, and I write this blog I am watching a group of kids play a game of
hockey on the lake.  Sometimes it is really great to be a Canadian!

The lake is about the size of 10 football fields.  By Canadian standards not
a very large lake, but still it is a heck of a lot larger than a typical
hockey rink.  Just as a lark, the kids have set up goalposts at each end of
the lake and are playing a game of hockey that uses the entire lake surface
as a hockey rink.  Probably one of the largest unofficial hockey rinks ever
– although I assume these kids are not the first to realize the joy (and
fatigue) of skating and playing hockey on such a huge rink.

Watching the kids trying to play hockey on such a big "arena" got me
thinking of scale.  Hockey was not meant to played on such a large surface
– as these kids are finding out as their passes stop half-way to their
intended targets.  While playing with an incorrect scale is fun for pick-up
hockey, it is not fun or effective for a risk management system.  Thus the
question – is your risk management system and ideas big enough for your
organization?  Is your risk management too large, or is it too small? 
Either way it doesn't fit.


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