We don’t live in the world for which conventional risk-management textbooks prepare us. No forecasting model predicted the impact of the current economic crisis, and its consequences continue to take establishment economists and business academics by surprise. Moreover, as we all know, the crisis has been compounded by the banks’ so-called risk-management models, which increased…
New products and services are created to enable people to do tasks better than they previously could, or to do things that they couldn’t before. But innovations also carry risks. Just how risky an innovation proves to be depends in great measure on the choices people make in using it. Ask yourself this: If you…
Let’s start with a question. You’re offered the chance to take part in a little bet. A fair coin will be tossed. If you win, you’ll receive R100. If you lose, you need to give up R100. Would you take up the bet? Let’s change it up a bit. You still need to pay R100…
Risk management can feel like going to war: there are threats on the horizon and it could take substantial investments of time, resources and effort to achieve victory. Some of the threats your business will face are bad debts, theft or fraud, loss or theft of data and natural disasters. The good news is your…
Information technology is one of the most valuable yet often least understood assets in a business. It takes an insightful enterprise to recognise the benefits of information technology and use it to drive stakeholder value. Moreover, successfully managing information technology in a business also means understanding and mitigating the risks associated with it, including increased…
The release of the definitive International Integrated Reporting <IR> Framework in December 2013 has cleared the confusion about what an integrated report actually is and how companies should implement it. Until now many ‘integrated reports’ were anything but except in title, with one survey concluding that only 30% of so-called integrated reports truly made the…
Australia is rich in fossil fuels. Vast reserves of black and brown coal drove the development of coal-fired power stations which have supplied power for many years to Australian industry at comparatively low prices, creating a cost advantage that attracted energy-intensive industries and supported the growth of manufacturing. This story is similar to South Africa’s…
By using earnings per share as a measure of financial performance, do we interpret it appropriately? Pundits in the know and other users of financial statements perhaps not that well informed have been touting earnings per share (EPS) as the holy grail of financial performance for a very long time. The requirement for companies in…
Risk management can feel like going to war: there are threats on the horizon and it could take substantial investments of time, resources and effort to achieve victory. Some of the threats your business will face are bad debts, theft or fraud, loss or theft of data and natural disasters. The good news is your…
Outside the grey stone walls of Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, it was an ordinary damp Friday morning in England. But inside, where I sat listening to Adrian Moorhouse – Olympic gold medallist turned consultant – it was an extraordinary moment. I had just experienced that rare and delightful ‘Ah-ha!’ moment, and I knew then…