An early member of the FAIR Institute, Tom Keogh says he goes far enough back in the history of FAIR™ to remember “the long journey to the point where it could answer questions so many of us had been asking for a long time.”
Tom has had a varied career in risk management in Wall Street, manufacturing, Big 4 consulting and more. He’s currently the principal at risk management firm Square1 Risk, LLC.
Luke Bader is Director, Membership and Programs, for the FAIR Institute.
Tom also has a talent for encapsulating solid advice for quantitative-minded risk managers and analysts. In our video conversation, you’ll hear some advice you’ll want to quote in explaining FAIR at your operation. Some samples:
- “Reliable and defensible decision support, that’s really what it’s all about…Ultimately, you are talking to people running businesses and businesses need to make decisions.”
- “[To paraphrase FAIR book co-author Jack Freund], most of this job is just talking to people.”
- ”When you talk to people, talk to them in their way…When I talk to people running business processes, I ask ‘How do you make money?’ ‘How do you know if you are meeting your objectives?’ That quickly trips into, ‘What do you depend on?’... Invariably that’s information systems. Now we’re having a discussion about how the business depends on information…and never say Confidentiality, Integrity or Availability.”
- "Our job is to reduce uncertainty…and make good decisions as best we can and hope that more of them get the outcomes we want than fewer…If you’re a professional poker player and you win 55% of your hands, you’ll make a living. If you win 60% of your hands, you’re going to get rich.”
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