Coming Home From Oz
As I prepare to set off home from Melbourne a few reflections on my flying visit to Australia. From a professional perspective, it is clear that there is a major…
Dear New Head of the FCA
I thought it would be useful for me to drop you a line before you embark on your new challenge. Many of my readers accuse me of being soft on…
A Few Rotten Apples
It’s the time of year when I am supposed to write something inspirational. As I pushed my trolley around a superstore run by a company with accounting challenges I was…
Three Lines of Defence – The Debate
The Three Lines of Defence (3 LOD) was introduced in the mid 1990’s to provide a framework within which responsibility and accountability for risk could be assigned. Since inception it…
One Massive Lost Opportunity
This week has been hugely defining for me and everything I stand for in my professional life. For the last seven years readers may have noticed that I have been…
Tesco – The Cultural Perspective
I feel compelled to venture outside the financial services sector and reflect on Tesco’s announcement that it has overstated half year figures to the tune of £ 250 million. The…
Scotland – Logic or Emotion
Over four million Scottish residents will today vote on whether to form an independent country and break away from the United Kingdom. Who would ever have imagined such an event?…
The Law or One’s Reputation
A recent conversation I had with a senior lawyer led me to consider banks’ approach to staying within the law whilst managing one’s reputation. This very eloquent and obviously highly…
Managing Cultural Risk
Our business careers have been spent as observers of corporate practice, both good and bad. As internal auditors we have spent, perhaps too many, hours focussed on the bad and…
Credit Crunch Interview
Readers of my newsletter, Stop Press, may be interested in an interview I recently recorded on the subject of an article I have written concerning progress made since the credit…