Innovation:: managing complexity & reducing risk [Design News]

I was first aware of the author courtesy of this quote…that alarmingly few business ‘leaders’ appear to, either, believe or understand…

“In a complex system, learning how all the pieces—constant and variable—interact gives a depth of understanding that averts catastrophe. That is what we mean by human-centred design—understanding the interfaces among technology, people, communities, governments, and nature. This is what makes complexity manageable”.

If you are in the business of making money based upon the ability of another party to avoid financial loss, then your own ability to identify the properties that distinguish ‘good risk from bad’ is, SURELY, fundamental!? So the message that there is a means to gain “…understanding that averts catastrophe“, through “understanding the interfaces among technology, people, communities, governments, and nature” must surely be greeted with wide-eyed enthusiasm.

Need to build [or restore] customer trust?:: Corporations must join the Collaborative Economy

JO has nicely summarised what I have (unknowingly, in the beginning) been mapping-out in my mind as a viable alternative to the unsustainable model(s) adopted by the insurance industry and wider Financial Services industry. All I need now is to identify the ‘risk leaders’ of tomorrow. If that sounds like you, please get in touch.

Right now, customers are sharing media and ideas on social technologies, in the near future, they’ll use similar technologies to share products and services, which will cause a ripple of impacts far more disruptive than what we’ve seen before.

[The Collaborative Economy is an economic model where ownership and access are shared between people, startups, and corporations]

Report: Corporations must join the Collaborative Economy | Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing.

[Ontonix] Coping With Turbulence: More Theories and Math?

…math is often used to model things that cannot be modeled (in the sense that the results such models produce are mathematically correct but totally irrelevant). Risk, and especially the consequences of risk, are something that math is unable to embrace. This is because risk lacks a definition, a metric (standard deviation is NOT a measure of risk) and, most importantly, because it is a reflection of subjective human sentiments as to the potential level of regret after some hazardous circumstance has actually materialized. Now how do you measure that?

See on Scoop.it – Complexity & Resilience
Author : Ontonix
See on www.interfima.org

Competitive advantage from new insights on customers, risks and business cycles – Bain & Co.

It isn’t rocket science to figure that, if we keep asking the same questions, using the same metrics and look for familiar patterns in data we won’t get new, better answers or identify new patterns!

Identifying, mapping, monitoring and managing causal relationships is a means by which carriers of financial/insurance risk can seize a considerable competitive advantage…from an informational advantage.

Ontonix enables organisations [insurers] to do just that…in real-time, if required!

So, instead of relying upon attempts to predict the unpredictable and reflexive, post-loss, analysis the opportunity exists for ‘crisis anticipation’. Our experience of working across a wide range of sectors – from healthcare to aviation, automotive and engineering design to banking – is that, our unique analysis can enable effective loss prevention. A, potentially, transformational development for firms involved in insurance risk transfer, investing for future returns or protecting against unknown (or unknowable) future events…so where are the ‘Risk Leaders’?

Insurance Industry:: Innovation, transformation or failure

If you have visited my blog before you will already know that I have spent some considerable time researching and commenting upon a wide of topics that, although many within insurance fail to see the connection, are related directly related to the insurance industry.

In truth, my work was initially prompted by concerns (a deep dissatisfaction may be more appropriate!) about how the insurance (particularly broking) operated: structure; culture; regulation; remuneration levels; use of IT; cover; pricing of RISK. It was only as I delved deeper into the subject matter, a form of ‘root cause analysis’ [RCA] – causality being particularly pertinent to insurance! – that I came to fully appreciate HOW DANGEROUSLY LIMITED the understanding and application of a probability-based assessment of risk truly was. Especially when the business environment has, fundamentally and irrevocably, changed.

If a future event will take place, it will do so irrespective of the probability that we may have attached to it. If an extremely  unlikely event will happen, it’s probability of occurrence is already 100%

Having been introduced to Complexity (by Dr Jacek Marczyk, Founder of Ontonix srl) and it’s relationship to risk and uncertainty my RCA led me to investigate from a (more rigorous) scientific and mathematical perspective. Eventually into the realm of the behaviour of Complex Systems and, inevitably, to Systems Thinking. Gradually, the understanding, that comes from viewing life and work through the Systems lens, revealed that much of what is wrong with Financial Services stems from unnatural interventions.