Speaking & training circuit

Save the date:

• The Black Swan Myth Debunked | Corporate Risk Management – Strategic Resilience for Emerging Risks | May 26-27 2011 | Swisshotel | Sydney

Recent speaking engagements:

• Best practices in public sector internal audit, audit committees and risk management | IIA Asia Pacific Conference (SOPAC)
• New global risk standard – ISO 31000 | Interview with Michael Parkinson on the new global standard (available in streaming video)
• Providing Internal Audit Opinions | National masterclass & webinar series – IIA-Australia
• Understanding Strategic Risk | National masterclass series – IIA-Australia
• Risk and Responsibility | Association of Heads of Australian University Colleges and Halls (AHAUCHI) national congress (available in streaming video)
• Smashing Open the Addiction to Business as Usual | Bryant University / MA Chamber of Commerce (USA)
• The Real Risks of Business as Usual | WA Water Strategy & Climate Change Resilient Futures Strategy Forum
• Audit Opinions – Part of the process or optional extra | AICD National Public Sector Conference
• Building a Good Audit Committee | SOPAC – IIA’s premier regional conference for Australia, South Pacific & Asia (with Jon Isaacs – prominent Audit Committe Chair)
• Futurecasting | Mega trends for forecasting, strategy and risk in a rapidly changing world – ACL user’s forum
• ASX Corporate Governance Council’s Revised Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations | Intitute of Internal Auditors Canberra Chapter
• Internal audit as a change agent | ICAA Business forum Victoria (CPE week, Melbourne)
• From the Backroom to the Boardroom – a new horizon for Internal Audit | IIA Western Australian Internal Audit congress, Perth
• Fundamental change in the Audit Profession… Where is it going, how will it affect you and what do you need to do about it? | NSW Internal Audit congresses, Sydney, Penrith (IIAA)
• Corporate Governance and Risk Management for Not for Profits and NGOs | Australian Society of Association Executives, Sydney (AuSAE)
• Pulse Radio – a case study in radical innovation | LQA Innovation program, Melbourne
• Fundamental change in the Audit Profession… Where is it going, how will it affect you and what do you need to do about it? | Association of University Auditors (ACUA) Australian National Conference, Sydney.

Academia & education

Todd led and/or developed the majority of short courses and masterclasses for IIA-Australia on complex and emerging areas from 2008-2010. These included:

• Strategic risk
• Mastering the new Principle 7 (Recognise and Manage Risk) of the Australian Stock Exchange Corporate Governance Principles & Recommendations
• The new International Professional Practices Framework
• Providing internal audit opinions
• Technical & Regulatory updates
• A range of other ad-hoc topics.

In addition Todd has been a guest lecturer and tutor at the following:

• Advanced Management Accounting Module | Institute of Chartered Accountants – (CA Program)
• Cashflow forecasting, financial modelling and valuation models | Edith Cowan University (National Enterprise Workshop)
• Company Law – Edith Cowan University | (Bachelor of Business Program)

To subscribe to this series of occasional articles and case studies, please click here.

Insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.

Albert Einstein

Thanks to Lexis Nexis for making my most recent article available from the current issue of Risk Management Today to my clients and readers.

The editorial panel was asked to cast their mind back to the most significant risk events over the last 12 months. For mine it was a thematic observation that despite strategic risk being the risk class which causes the greatest long term destruction and creation of shareholder value, it the class of risk most poorly handled. There are many reasons for this, but perhaps the greatest is that these tend to be slowly unfolding events over multiple years and therefore tend to not grab our attention in the same way that a sudden shock does.

The good news is that this risk class is starting to get the attention of the mainstream at the big end of town. The bad news is that there are many spruikers who are apparently suddenly well equipped to deal with this class of risk. My assessment is there’s very little substance to much of what’s on offer. This article offers a festive perspective and (hopefully) a little humour to a serious topic as well as a few pragmatic suggestions on how to get on top of this important risk class.

I hope you enjoy it as a light read during the quiet period and I look forward to catching up with you in the new year.

Key points

• ASX Principle 7 requires a focus on material business risks rather than being swamped by process. At the time of drafting the current Principles, the Corporate Governance Council was concerned that companies were being dragged into the minutia by risk processes rather than using them for strategic insights. From a shareholder perspective it seems their concerns were correct.
• Most risk assessments work on the assumption that all things remain the same. The biggest risk of all is that all things don’t remain the same. This is where black swans often are hiding.
• Here’s a bunch of things to think about over the Christmas break.

Please feel free to download the article and pass it on. (Risk Management Today Issue 6 -Black swans, 3 pages, 132kB)

More information on this publication can be found here.

Seasons greetings,

Todd

To subscribe to this series of occasional articles and case studies, please click here.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

This video has been provided by the IIA as part of their outreach program. For more information go to www.iia.org.au.

To subscribe to this series of occasional articles and case studies, please click here.

To see the rebuttal, have a look at page 3 of the July edition of Risk Management Magazine here.  And to see the original article which caused the contraversy, click here for page 3 fo the June edition.  (Now locked down, here’s the web version).

For more information on how strategy, risk, governance and assurance come together, please click here.

To subscribe to this series of occasional articles and case studies, please click here.

TDA has track record in brining these functions together for greatest impact.  We can help to ensure:

• Duplication between assurance functions is minimused
• Assurance programs are focused on what really matters
• Risk management has a top-down view of strategic risks
• Emerging risk capability informs the strategy and risk functions
• Strategic risk insight informs the strategy process
• Strategy drives capability development

To find out more, contact us.

To subscribe to this series of occasional articles and case studies, please click here.

Todd Davies has been helping shape the risk and assurance landscape globally for more than a decade. Todd Davies & Associates works with Australia’s most respected companies to get the greatest impact out of their internal audit and risk functions.

We help leading organisations to:

• Define a vision for risk and assurance in their organisations
• Understand existing practices and what’s possible
• Develop and select the right strategies
• Put the right capabilities, structures and resources in place
• Realise their vision

We act as a sounding board, architect and coach throughout the process and assist with implementation where required.

We also work to develop and drive new practices into the risk and audit professions through our thought leadership series, articles, training, speaking circuit, social media and ground breaking work that we do with our clients.  We are proud to showcase this work and many of our case studies and thought pieces are available free of charge on this site.

Please feel free to read one of our news items and thought pieces from the left hand side of the site, subscribe to The Davies Report, or work your way through the menu at the top of our site to find out more about our services, case studies, testimonials and other ways to link with us and and our network of leading practitioners, clients and colleagues.

We look forward to joining with you to set new norms and leading practices.

To subscribe to this series of occasional articles and case studies, please click here.