Business Risk

List of Commonly Conflated Financial Terms

List of Commonly Conflated Financial Terms

In this archive post we discuss a number of financial terms whose precise meaning is frequently intentionally or unintentionally obscured. As a result those terms may, like a Rorschach Blot, mean different things to different people. Unlike this famous psychological test, ambiguity in weighty financial matters can have adverse consequences.

Reading Time: 13 min.

According to wikipedia Conflation is the merging of two or more sets of information, texts, ideas, opinions, etc., into one, often in error. This may lead to misunderstandings, as the fusion of distinct subjects might obscure analysis of relationships which are emphasized by contrasts. Why does conflation happen in the first place? There are several possible factors which in some contexts may be co-existing and overlapping:

9 Things They Do Not Tell You About Risk Management

9 Things They Do Not Tell You About Risk Management

Risk Management means different things to different people. In this post we explore some truths about professional risk management that highlight both the challenges it is facing as a discipline and the significant role it can play towards a sustainable future

Reading Time: 13 min.

Informal Risk Management has been practiced by individuals since time immemorial. This is the domain of intuitive decision-making, assessing a situation on the spot and taking immediate action to avoid obvious risks.

Visualization of a Planet in Lockdown

Visualization of a Planet in Lockdown

We visualize global mobility patterns over a full year of pandemic induced lockdowns

Reading Time: 5 min.

Visualizing a year in lockdowns and restricted mobility

As we move into February 2021 the world will be experiencing almost a year under pandemic conditions. This has markedly changed behavioral patterns of human mobility across the board. One major difference with previous pandemics is that through the use of a variety of digital technologies and new data collection channels we know have an unprecedented view of those changing mobility patterns.

A Global Mobility Index

A Global Mobility Index

We introduce a global mobility index that averages Google mobility data across all available countries (weighting by population) to provide an overall view of how the pandemic has influenced human mobility

Reading Time: 6 min.

Constructing a Global Mobility Index (GMI)

In previous posts (here, and here) we introduced new Open Risk Dashboard functionalities that integrate COVID-19 community mobility data (currently focusing on the datasets provided by Google).

As a reminder, these reports chart over time human mobility trends collected from mobile geolocation data. The granularity is by geography and across different categories of places / activities such as retail and recreation areas, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residential areas. Through these data sets we have available (for the first time in history) an overall quantitative view of global mobility (and Mobility Risk )!

Comparing Google Community Mobility Reports Across Countries

Comparing Google Community Mobility Reports Across Countries

Reading Time: 5 min.

The community mobility reports and OpenCPM

In a previous post we introduced new OpenCPM functionality that integrates COVID-19 community mobility data (currently from Google). The reports chart movement trends over time by geography, across different categories of places such as retail and recreation, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residential.

Exploring Community Mobility Reports Using OpenCPM

Exploring Community Mobility Reports Using OpenCPM

Reading Time: 7 min.

The community mobility reports and OpenCPM

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded technology providers (most notably Google and Apple) made available to the public aggregated and anonymized data about human mobility in the crisis period (on the basis of smartphone location data). These Community Mobility Reports provide insights into how mobility patterns changed in response both to pandemic news and policies aimed at combating COVID-19.

Business Model Risk

Business Model Risk

Reading Time: 5 min.

Business Model Risk - The Forgotten Risk Type

Sustainable business models that demonstrate adequate profitability over long horizons are key to a healthy market economy. This applies to firms and organizations of any size and in any sector. But how do we determine what is sustainable and how can we tell a risky business structure from a stable one?

05, Identification of Business Model Risks

05, Identification of Business Model Risks

Reading Time: 0 min.

Open Risk White Paper 5: Identification Framework for Business Model Risks

We develop an analytical framework for the systematic identification of business model risks. The framework utilizes as a starting point a simplified business model schema known as the Business Model Canvas. We review each one of the elements of the schema in turn, identifying the main risk characteristics associated with each.

04, Open Risk Model Taxonomy

04, Open Risk Model Taxonomy

Reading Time: 1 min.

Open Risk White Paper 4: Open Risk Model Taxonomy

We develop a taxonomy for risk models that aims to support an open source risk models framework. The proposal builds on and extends some commonly used risk taxonomies within financial services firms but introduces some significant new elements. We first review the motivation for risk taxonomies, the concepts and tools that are involved and some weaknesses of current schemes. We try also to clarify the link between risk models and risk taxonomies.

The periodic table of risk elements

The periodic table of risk elements

Reading Time: 5 min.

You know the periodic table of elements, even if you flunked your science courses! It is the large colorful and blocky table that hanged on every school’s classrooms before becoming yet another mobile app. The periodic table is one of the early and iconic achievements of science. It lists all the pure chemical elements found in nature, the building blocks of all possible material substances. Each block contains a set of numbers that unambiguously characterizes each element and a single or two letter abbreviation for each: H for Hydrogen, He for Helium and so forth, going on for over a hundred different elements. When the periodic table was discovered by Mendeleev (apparently in his dream!) it was an extraordinary realization that the physical world has an underlying order at the microscopic level. In his own words: