Failure is no Option

In the aftermath of the unfortunate emergency number outage in Switzerland, a journalist calls on Swisscom's CEO to resign. The reporter is guided by the time-honored error-blame paradigm. This should give us pause for thought. Not because we want to absolve executives of their responsibility. But because antiquated tools are being used here to try…

When it comes to keeping the company's risks under organizational control, the first thing that sticks out in one's mind is safety management. What is often not considered is the standing of the safety experts in the company and thus their relationship with the risk owners. This blog article illustrates how significant this can be.

Whenever nothing should go wrong, the work must be approached with great thoroughness. This is a culturally deeply anchored expectation, especially in the high-risk environment. If things do not go well, it is once again a human error. Is that all a safety culture has to offer?

I am pleased to be able to contribute to the HSG Alumni Open Innovation Days 2021. The hybrid event will take place from 1 - 9.6.21 and is an alumni 'homage' to the new HSG Learning Center being built at the University of St. Gallen. The learning safety culture will be the theme of my workshop, with a focus on the associated challenges for leaders.…

And once again we hear about corporate failures in the press. This time in the financial sector, where questionable dealings are costing a Swiss bank a lot of money. There is talk of a lack of risk management and a toxic culture that puts profit ahead of safety. This case also shows that risk management that is not underpinned by a safety culture…