by Rick Nason, PhD, CFA
Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.
I recently gave a talk at the Arditti Center for Risk Management at DePaul University in Chicago. It was a joint event with PRMIA. The audience for the talk was fantastic. They were a truly eclectic crew, ranging from academics, to traders, to computer scientists, and perhaps even one or two people who got lost and decided to stick around for the cheese and crackers afterwards.
What made the audience so great is that (a) they were a very diverse bunch, and (b) they were very active in asking questions and making comments. It was a delight for me and I know that I learned a lot and got a plethora of great ideas to work on.
One of the problems that I currently see in risk departments is that they do not have mechanisms to exchange ideas and to build an ideas portfolio. Risk departments need to be active in actively seeking out new ideas – ideas that will challenge them and generate new paradigms. Risk departments need to be as creative if not more creative than marketing and advertising departments. Risk departments need to carefully build, evolve and nurture their ideas portfolios.
