The field of operational risk management is still relatively new. Last year, I thought about creating a risk textbook and shopping it to publishers like Pearson or Wiley because I have not been able to find a single risk textbook for classroom use either at the introductory or advanced level. When I examined that route more thoroughly, I realized that it would not work for me or my readers mainly because of the time involved to publish a book and the price the publisher would set for such a volume. Then there is the more elementary issue that most of my writing has immediacy, examining current events within the broader framework of risk, governance, policy, and law.
Fortunately, the planets aligned. I had written four times a year for the London–based RIsk Universe magazine for five years, producing twenty articles that are still quite relevant to the study of risk. That magazine ceased publication last year, and granted me permission to reprint the articles with fresh new head notes. We made a decision to publish the original articles with their dates as well as the British spellings of some words. I took about eight months to finish the head notes, and made a decision to create an addendum to the volume, including ten of the columns I had written for this newsletter since 2016. Topics from Risk Universe articles range from the 2008 financial sector crisis to 9-11, vendor risk, conduct risk, cyber risk, reputational risk, responsibilities of boards of directors, and operational risks from ISIS or Ebola. The ten columns from this newsletter range from the widely reprinted “Can You Spell Kakistocracy?” to “America as a Killing Field,” and “The Limits of Presidential Power.”
The result is Risk Reconsidered, published last month by Tautegory Press and available now from Amazon for $14.95.
From its five external reviewers:
“Annie’s contribution over the 5 ½ years we published The Risk Universe exactly met our vision…The quality of Annie’s articles contained in this book speak for themselves, augmented by more recent material proving that she is a master of that core construct of operational risk: people (or conduct) risk. I look forward to continue to read Annie’s thought provoking articles and blogs for many years to come.”
- Mike Finlay, Publisher, The Risk Universe
“Risk Reconsidered focuses appropriately on governance, ethics and insider risks, as well as other critical risks. The writings are particularly relevant, given the current administration and business and economic times… Annie is not only a well-respected risk professional, but an exceptional writer.”
- Catherine Allen, Chairman and CEO, The Santa Fe Group
” Vibrant, even exciting, observations of how bankers lost the balance and ballast of common ethical standards, and how society, and the banks and bank stakeholders -- but only rarely the bankers -- suffered from the loss. She is equally effective when she broadens her vision to encompass other industries and disasters like 9-11. Searle's pragmatic knowledge of both principles and anecdotes is distilled into educational and managerial wisdom.”
- Howard Stein, Former Head of Operational Risk, The Corporate & Investment Bank, Citibank and Citigroup International
"Annie Searle’s Risk Reconsidered is an insightful, profound, far reaching, but easily digested collection of essays that tackles the challenges of many of the last two decades’ worth of international and domestic crises. Refreshingly accessible, but not dumb-downed, the essays offer lessons for all of us with significant responsibilities within complex systems. Searle’s vast experience in risk assessment and management, alongside substantial teaching experience, provides readers with a rewarding read.”
- Sara Curran, Director, University of Washington Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology, and Professor of International Studies, The Jackson School
“Operational risks permeate institutions of every sort – business, governmental, educational, nonprofits. Annie Searle combines her extensive experience in banking, technology, public affairs, and education with Basel’s four risk lenses – people, process, systems, and external events – to provide cogent commentary on cutting edge operational risk issues. The articles in Risk Reconsidered, with the addition of headnotes, are as timely for today’s world as they were when originally written.
- William Longbrake, Executive in Residence, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland
My first book, Advice from A Risk Detective(Tautegory Press 2011, 2013), focused on how to handle everyday personal risk and was intended for the general public. My research and writing has focused since 2015 on the field of conduct risk, as evidenced by a book chapter -- “How Does Conduct Risk Manifest and What Are Its Root Causes?” -- for the textbook Conduct Risk: A Practitioner’s Guide, (Risk Books, London, 2016, ed. Peter Haines). With myself as executive editor and Emily Oxenford as editor, the ASA Institute for Research and Innovation has published four volumes of research notes to date on operational risk events and issues authored primarily by my students in a series called Reflections on Risk (2012-2017), also available from Amazon. I am beginning to plan my next book with a focus on emerging trends in cybersecurity.
Annie Searle
Searle is an Associate Teaching Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington. She is founder and principal of ASA Risk Consultants, a Seattle-based advisory firm. She spent 10 years at Washington Mutual Bank, most of them as a senior executive. Annie is a member of the CISA 10 Regional Infrastructure Security Group. She was an inaugural inductee in 2011 into the Hall of Fame for the International Network of Women in Homeland Security and Emergency Management. She writes a column monthly for ASA News & Notes and is the author of several books or book chapters. She is also a member of the emeritus board of directors for the Seattle Public Library Foundation.