Friday Risk Reading - Mahony Partners

Dec

2013

Our Hits and Misses in 2013

Friday Risk Reading, Taking & Managing Risk

It’s the time of year to reflect on life, business – and our best and worst posts. Your diligent scribe here at the Risk Matters blog had a few observations that proved prescient. Oh yes, there were some clunkers, too. (more…) Read More

Dec

2012

Merry Christmas, Mr. Fezziwig

Financial Services, Friday Risk Reading

Mahony Partners will soon adjourn to celebrate Christmas, and by tradition we will read from A Christmas Carol, the classic story of the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge, a pitiless banker. One small character in that great story has always been my favorite: Mr. Fezziwig, the merchant to whom the young Ebenezer is apprenticed. Fezziwig not only k... Read More

Aug

2012

Elisabeth Murdoch Lights a Fire

Friday Risk Reading, Media, Taking & Managing Risk

The Murdochs were in the news again this week. But this time it was Elisabeth Murdoch, who grabbed headlines for her powerful speech at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. It’s a terrific speech, one of the best I’ve seen in a long time by a business leader, and it is instructive not only for media companies but businesses everywhere. (more…) Read More

Jan

2012

Friday Risk Reading: Shackleton

Crisis, Friday Risk Reading, Taking & Managing Risk

I was catching up on holiday reading and came across this excellent New York Times piece on Ernest Shackleton written by Harvard Business School professor Nancy Koehn. Shackleton's ambitious journey to reach the South Pole ended in failure but became a triumph of leadership, courage and determination as he brought his entire crew safely home after a nearly two-year ordeal in the most difficult conditions on the planet. (It's an astonishing story, and for a complete account of the saga, Read More

Jan

2012

The 2011 Risk List: The year’s 5 best risk-takers

Crisis, Financial Services, Friday Risk Reading, Taking & Managing Risk

As 2011 disappears in the rear-view mirror, here’s my list of noteworthy risk-takers over the past year. These are the people and institutions that took risks intelligently and won. The list of risk-bumblers - those who mishandled critical situations - is certainly longer (UBS, Olympus, Yahoo, MF Global, I could go on) but their woes already have been well cataloged, and who wants to start the New Year revisiting disasters? So here are the top risk-takers: 1. Jefferies. Before this year, mid-size investment bank Jefferies happily stayed below the radar, built its business and made a tidy profit. All that changed when MF Global collapsed and investo... Read More

Dec

2011

RIP, Christopher Hitchens

Friday Risk Reading

There are many tributes today to Christopher Hitchens, and they're packed with links to his many writings and interviews - one of the hallmarks of the public intellectual in the modern age. Vanity Fair, where Hitchens was a contributing editor, has a short remembrance and a collection of Hitchens's video appearances. In the video below, Hitchens discusses his memoir, "Hitch-22," with Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show." It is especially poignant because Hitchens touches on his own death, although at the time he had not yet been diagnosed with cancer. His courage, wit and ... Read More

Dec

2011

In hedge fund manager’s letter, an echo of the 1930s

Friday Risk Reading

Prominent hedge-fund manager Leon Cooperman wrote a widely distributed letter to President Obama this week in which he decried the President’s role in framing the national economic debate in “class warfare” terms. Cooperman’s words are remarkably similar to those of another pubic figure who warned a President about the risks stemming from a bruising policy debate. In 1936, Alfred E. Smith, the former Governor of New York, famously cited the perils he saw as the Depression extended its grip on the country: "What are these da... Read More

Nov

2011

On air crashes and financial failures

Crisis, Financial Services, Friday Risk Reading

I happened to be reading Malcom Gladwell’s excellent book, Outliers, just as MF Global was collapsing, and I came across Gladwell’s discussion about another kind of crash – those involving airplanes. Gladwell offers an interesting observation about the causes of air disasters that could apply to the failures at financial firms, like MF Global, or the whopping trading losses reported two months ago at UBS. Gladwell shows that air disasters aren’t caused by a sudden, dramatic mishap but an accumulation of small errors rooted in poor communication: “The typical accident involves seven consecutive human errors. One of ... Read More

Oct

2011

While politicians dither on climate risk, companies act

Friday Risk Reading

Climate change has all but disappeared from the headlines, aside from serving as a popular punching bag for Republican presidential candidates. But while politicians are busy denying the problem, businesses are taking action. There’s ample evidence that corporations recognize the risk of climate change and are factoring it into their investment planning. According to media reports today, Starbucks is already seeing a drop in coffee yields because of weather ... Read More

Oct

2011

Friday Risk Reading: Fostering a healthy risk culture

Friday Risk Reading, Taking & Managing Risk

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about risk and corporate cultures. Some cultures produce disasters, like the massive, concealed trading loss at UBS – the most recent in a long streak of debacles for the bank. Other environments, however, seem consistently to produce good things – valued products and great experiences. Apple of course comes to mind in this category; Starbucks, too. Both have cultures that nurture and sustain healthy risk-taking, and I am offering two quick items about them for this week's Risk Reading. I’ve written Read More