Japan’s “Black Swan” Catastrophes — Implications for Consulting Firms

We need to understand these are multi-faceted and emerging catastrophes. New risks will appear as events unfold over weeks and months. The need to identify and mitigate risk is not limited to pre-event assessments; and early solutions and priorities will shift and change.  It will also require new perspectives and tools to manage complexity. Catastrophe destabilizes….everything, but it especially destabilizes relationships. The…

Performance Analytics – Reducing Risk of Heart Attack Mortality During Hospital Stays

 OVERVIEW: Performance analytics provide the empirical basis for the strategic and tactical management of healthcare outcomes.  As discussed in the referenced JAMA study, for every percentage increase in the guideline adherence rate in hospitals there was an equivalent decrease in the likelihood the patients treated would die before discharge.  Ironically, in the 350 hospitals studied,…

The Curly Factor & Risk? How to Profit From Coarse Behavior

We  talk about “risk intelligence”  and various gurus and philosophers have called it “the capacity to learn about risk from experience and a special kind of intelligence for thinking about risk and uncertainty.” I’m not exactly sure what that means, except you’re going pay a lot find out; and you’re also likely to get involved with estimating probabilities…

Performance, Risk, Complexity & All That Jazz

What do we mean by “performance?”  It’s not a philosophical question to ponder over a Starbucks.  The world is awash with complexity and uncertainty. It’s show time, folks. Performance? Are your expectations realistic?  Better yet, are your expectations relevant?How do you know? We know from ecology that some entities – fish, fauna, football teams, multi-nationals –  become…

Game Changing Risk & Globalization

There is no free lunch. You want global reach? Well, you also get global risk. You cannot just outsource and forget, or it will come back to bite you in your market capitalization and brand loyalty. Upstream trading partners are much less “visible” while simultaneously assuming more and more control over key manufacturing and process operations. Today it is all about supply side risk and developing resilient strategies to survive in the global market.