The blows keep on coming for Wells Fargo. Within a year of their cross-selling scandal, two more scandals have risen to the top of news headlines. In part one of this series, I set out to make good on a prediction I presented to business journalist L.A. Winokur. I predicted that after the dust settled…
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In a recent interview I had with business journalist L.A. Winokur regarding the Wells Fargo cross-selling scandal, I made a prediction: “Once the dust of this scandal settles, perhaps in two or three years, Wells Fargo will remain vulnerable in other areas of its operations to risk management failures.” Low and behold, the only part…
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Kmart recently suffered another cyber breach (the second in the past few years) that echoes events affecting companies including Wendy’s and Target. In this case, a wholly preventable weakness in the company’s POS system let through a malware attack, affecting an undetermined number of Kmart’s 735 domestic sites. Failure to recognize and mitigate the root…
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Breaches are preventable failures in risk management. A healthcare breach at Metro Community Provider Network (MCPN), a federally approved organization, led to a $400,000 penalty and a mandated correction plan. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) levied the penalty; the cause of the breach has been cited as a failure to conduct “a timely and…
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At lunch recently, I opened my fortune cookie and found this message inside: “Any journey must begin with a single step, and you can be the one to take it.” That simple message inspired me to write this blog. Events taking place after the Trump administration withdrew from the Paris climate agreement have demonstrated there…
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Strong organizational governance is a crucial component of sustainable operations, and is defined by the processes senior leadership follows when making and implementing strategic decisions. Without strong governance, it’s impossible to operationalize internal policies, decreasing efficiency, increasing the likelihood of compliance violations, and exposing the organization to unnecessary vulnerabilities. To learn more about how involved…
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This past weekend, news broke of a global ransomware attack that has struck individuals and companies around the world. In the wake of the attack, which has affected computers in 150 countries, many companies are wondering 1) if they’re going to be hit and 2) what they can do to protect themselves. The WannaCry ransomware…
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Read part 1 of this series, “Domestic Political Risk: Operating in the Uncertainty of a New Era.” Here’s Why Compliance Solutions Are Inadequate for Managing Regulatory Changes Regulatory compliance is mandatory, but it’s not the end goal; it’s the minimum operating standard. For strong companies, compliance is a mere byproduct of performing well and…
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Governance is defined by the organizational processes used to make and implement decisions. Good governance is not necessarily making only the “correct” decisions. It’s using the best possible risk management process to inform decision-making, which has the potential to impact employees, customers, other stakeholders, and the community at large. Optimizing organizational governance is not just recommended,…
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For companies that care about their reputation, incident prevention is a must. Said best by Warren Buffet, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” Building and preserving that reputation through proactive incident prevention must be a top priority. Post-scandal…
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