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If you've become frustrated with trying to address skin imperfections in the eye area, you're not alone. Many women find themselves disappointed by the results of over-the-counter treatments for common eye area concerns, such as dark circles, under eye bags, dry skin and signs of aging. Too many eye products are hastily formulated and made available after only minimal clinical testing with a small number of participants or a narrow geographic scope. Unfortunately, these formulas often fail to produce results for a wide array of women with different skin types living in different types of environments around the world.
Boots No7 Eye Products differ from other eye care collections on the market because of the intensive testing that goes into their formulating. More than 200,000 study participants use Boots No7 Eye Products before they are packaged for sale, and during testing, the Boots No7 Eye Products are used in a wide variety of settings by a diverse group of women. All of this testing ensures that Boots No7 Eye Products can improve the health of the skin around your eyes.
Gently improve the texture, tone and health of the skin beneath and at the corners of your eyes with Boots No7 Eye Products.
If dark circles and puffy eyes persist no matter how much sleep you get at night, try applying Boots No7 Beautiful Skin Overnight Revitalising Eye Balm before you go to bed. The unique formula of the under eye balm uses ginseng and additional ingredients to encourage circulation to the eye area. This can help drain fluid to alleviate symptoms of puffiness and sweep away some of the pooled blood that contributes to dark circles. The formula also softens signs of aging.
Boots No7 Protect and Perfect Intense Eye Cream is a daily treatment for the eye area that is clinically shown to visibly reduce under eye circles and puffiness within just 12 weeks of use. The formula contains glycerin to draw moisture from the air and pull it into the skin as well as shea butter, which fills in the spaces between skin cells to soften and condition the eye area.
The Boots No7 Beautiful Skin Vitality Eye Roll-On is an instant pick-me-up for eyes that look tired. The easy-to-apply formula contains pearl extract to give the skin a luminous, bright look. The Eyeliss peptide complex is also included in the formula to strengthen collagen and elastic fibers. Over time, the eye treatment can help to reduce the depth of fine lines in the eye area and make the tissue more resistant to wrinkling.


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Chris Brown is no longer in a relationship with Rihanna. According to Brown, the two have parted ways romantically.
"At the end of the day, shawty doing her own thing," he explained to The Kyle And Jackie O Show. "She on the road…It's always gonna be love but I'm just gonna do me. I'm a grown man so I just gotta walk forward."
He added that he "can't really be focused on wifing someone that young."
"'ll just put it like this," he continued. "One thing I always want to do is never disrespect anybody or put nobody down. The way I look at it is, I'm always gonna love that person and people have different wants and needs. At the end of the day, she's a young girl. I can't really be focused on wifing someone that young. And I'm young too so I can't focus on that right now. I gotta step forward and be a man and be the best Chris Brown I can be instead of worrying about whoever else is gonna be in my side pocket."
Brown is reportedly 24 years old and Rihanna is reportedly 25. The pair spent Brown's birthday weekend in different states, with Brown celebrating in Las Vegas, Nevada and Rihanna in Brooklyn, New York. Audio from this interview can be heard below.
Brown and Rihanna reunited last year. The pair originally separated after Brown assaulted Rihanna in 2009. In 2012, Rihanna spoke of their relationship, saying they will "probably" always love one another. "We love each other, and we probably always will," she clarified. "That's not something you can shut off if you've ever been in love."
RELATED: Rihanna Says That She And Chris Brown "Love Each Other And We Probably Always Will"

subset: commoncrawl


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I'm currently 16, and I consider myself a good developer. I've worked as a freelance and with an Israeli company (that serves other international companies) for the past year, and I've completely satisfied my clients with a consistent 10/10 rating to date.
However, I've recently been trying to find work experience in real life at an influential software firm, but with limited (and by limited I mean no) success (I've only applied at the smaller firms, all of which were advertising available job positions). It is a requirement to take a week's work experience in my state, but I've already done that at a hospital (to try out my parent's career choice for me 0 a doctor), and want to have a shot at a software development firm. I've sent about 4 emails to different companies about it, but haven't received any replies yet (its been weeks).
How do I go about finding work experience as a 16 year old?


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Meet and Communicate with Fun Singles Near You on JDate
Register now to search thousands of members and post your FREE profile!
See who's on JDate:
I'm about 5'10''. Brown hair and blue eyes. Ask me what you need to know.
alexd296CF4 is a 27yr-old single man in Noonan, New BrunswickView Profile


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I just upgraded from Zimbra Community Edition 7.2.1 to 8.0.2 (and, on the way, from Debian to Ubuntu 12.04 and from 32- to 64 bit...). All of that went (mostly) fine.
I noted a few minor issues:
- ZCS8 regenerated self-signed SSL certs even though I copied the existing ones. Fixed by simply reimporting the proper ones with zmmanagecerts.
- A lot of the zimlets (I think mostly the old ones) haven't properly registered, but removing and reinstalling them fixes that, too.
- Server overview claims no services running even though they are; I already regenerated the ssh keys; but that's only a minor thing for my installation.
The main thing I'm seeing is really a UX issue: in 7.2.1 and earlier versions, the "automatically mark messages as read" functionality marked only the currently active message in a thread as read, so the top one when the thread was collapsed. This made it easy to see that there were more, older messages in the thread that hadn't been read yet.
In 8.0.2, however, this functionality marks the entire thread as read; so I no longer have an easy indicator of which threads have messages I haven't seen yet. I can set the functionality on or off in the settings; but I see no way to revert back to the old behaviour.
Is it possible to do so, and would anyone be kind enough to tell me how? :-)
Thank you,


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key x_item DV4904
Daniel Garcia Project - Paul Harris
Item Number: DV4904
Paul Harris presents the Daniel Garcia Project! Daniel Garcia absolutely fries the most discerning spectators, using the best of both classic effects and real-world technique updated with some new stuff that only Daniel could have created. Volume 1
Customer Reviews Write a review.
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February 9, 2013 | 1926 views
FEMA ready to help after Nemo
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Following heavy snowfall on the South Shore of Nassau County Friday into Saturday morning, Feb. 8 into 9, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and its federal partners, including the National Weather Service, continue to closely monitor the major winter storm systems that have affected the area.
At the state's request, FEMA liaisons have been positioned in state emergency operations centers in New York, in both Albany and New York City, in addition to Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Rhode Island, and Vermont. A National Incident Management Assistance Team is deploying to the Northeast to provide support if additional support is requested to help with emergency response coordination and other needs. These personnel are in addition to the joint state and federal field office staff already in place supporting ongoing disaster recovery efforts in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont following Hurricane Sandy. Other teams and personnel are ready to support, if needed and requested.
FEMA's regional offices in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, New York City, and Philadelphia are in contact with state emergency management counterparts and with tribal emergency managers in the path of the storm. FEMA's National Response Coordination Center in Washington, D.C. continues to monitor the situation and hold regular operational briefings with regional and federal partners as the severe winter weather continues.
"Everyone has a role to play in the response to this winter storm," said FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate. "Follow the direction of your state, local and tribal officials, and if you are told to stay off the roads, stay home, and when it is safe, check on your neighbors or friends nearby who may need assistance or extra support. Older adults and individuals who are dependent on life-sustaining medical equipment or assistive devices such as a ventilator or mobility devices, may need additional support in areas that have lost power."
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Aug 23
Bodine Bristol Preview
Posted by: lori on Aug 23, 2011
Tagged in: Untagged
No. 5 Valvoline Toyota Tundra News and Notes
- This Week's Tundra… The No. 5 Valvoline team and Germain Racing driver Todd Bodine will utilize GR-019 in Wednesday's 200-lap NCWTS race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Mike Hillman Jr. will once again be atop the pit box calling the shots for the defending series champion as this marks the sixth race of a collaborative effort between Germain Racing and Randy Moss Motorsports to field the No. 5 Tundra.
· One Spot Better… While all 21 of his truck series victories have occurred on tracks one mile or larger, Bodine has three runner-up finishes in six truck series starts at Bristol. Bodine, however, knows his way to victory lane at Bristol Motor Speedway, collecting two victories in NASCAR Nationwide Series competition.
· Holding Steady… With his 11th-place finish last race at Pocono, Bodine maintained his 10th-place standing in the driver points and is just 39 points out of the top five.
· Meet Todd... Fans in the Bristol, Tenn., area will have the opportunity to meet Todd Bodine on Thursday, August 25. The driver of the No. 5 Valvoline Toyota Tundra will join fellow NASCAR competitors to meet fans during a free autograph session as part of the annual Food City Fan Fest. The Food City Fan Fest will be held in the streets of downtown Bristol on Thursday from 1:00 p.m. – 9:00 EDT p.m., with Bodine scheduled to participate from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. the night after the truck series race.
· Watch and Listen… The O'Reilly 200 from Bristol Motor Speedway will be broadcast live on SPEED, MRN Radio and Sirius-XM NASCAR Radio, channel 90, on Wednesday night. SPEED kicks off its pre-race coverage at 7:30 p.m. EDT, and MRN Radio will begin its live broadcast at 7:45 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, August 24. SPEED will also carry live a broadcast of qualifying on Wednesday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. EDT.
Todd Bodine on Bristol Motor Speedway:
"Bristol is just one of those tracks that you really have to get on the wheel and drive hard. It's a half mile that you're on for 15 or 16 seconds. There's no time to relax, you have to get on the wheel and go. That's kind of been my style. It's always been what I liked. From the first time I ever raced at Bristol, I ran well. I've had some success with a couple wins. Really it's been a good track for me in all three NASCAR series, but I'm still looking for a Camping World Truck Series win there. I feel that this week is a week we could get it done with our Valvoline/International Trucks Tundra."
"To win at Bristol, first you have to have a truck that handles. It has to drive good and do everything you need, but maybe the bigger half of the battle is staying out of trouble. It's so fast and so tight there that it's really easy to get tangled up in someone else's mess."
"There's so much to pay attention to at Bristol that the spotter becomes even more important. He has to be on his toes. He's got to watch your race truck and watch ahead of you and keep you out of trouble. The spotter is a huge part of the team at Bristol."
Comments about the Food City Fan Fest…
"I like being a part of the festival for the Bristol fans. Food City has always been very important to Bristol Motor Speedway. In the old days, I did a lot for them. They do a great job for the fans with this event and it makes it a lot of fun."


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Donor Profile: Mel and Kathy Weatherwax
AMES, Iowa - At 23-years-old, Mel Weatherwax was an avid college football fan, so avid that watching televised games wasn't enough. He wanted to see the action live, so he weighed his options. As a full-time employee with United Parcel Service (UPS), multiple trips to Iowa City were too taxing. Instead, he chose the convenience of a short trip to Ames. It was that year, in 1973, that Mel attended his first Iowa State football game with a friend. And after one game, he was hooked.
"When I was 23 I decided it was too difficult to go to Iowa City, so a friend of mine and I decided to go to Iowa State games," Mel said. "I started going in 1973 and immediately felt like we had much more in common with ISU fans."
The years since 1973 have only intensified Weatherwax's commitment to Iowa State athletics. Today, Mel and his wife Kathy are being recognized for their ongoing dedication to the Cyclones with their recent donation to ISU's athletic facilities campaign. Their donation of $500,000 will directly assist the Iowa State Athletic Department as it "Takes the Next Big Step."
"We decided to do it to show our commitment to the future of ISU athletics," Mel said. "We feel very fortunate that we are able to do so."
Mel met Kathy while the two were attending Grand View College. The Des Moines natives were soon married and had their first son. In the midst of starting his family, Mel was offered a full-time position with UPS. He took the job and spent the next 32 years with the company, 30 of which were spent in management positions. Mel retired from UPS in 2000, but his and Kathy's enthusiasm toward the Cyclones has only gotten stronger.
The couple has held football season tickets for 35 years, men's basketball season tickets for 25 years and women's basketball season tickets for the past 10 years. Mel was also on hand for all five of the McCarney-era bowl games. There is no doubt their years in the stands have produced some unforgettable Cyclone memories.
"I'll always remember the weekend the men and women both won the Big 12 Basketball Championships in Kansas City," Mel said. "It was a tremendous weekend to be an Iowa Stater. From a football standpoint, I'll never forget my trip to Phoenix for the insight.com Bowl."
Mel and Kathy are members of the Order of the Knoll's W. M. Beardshear Society, for benefactors who have given $1 million or more to ISU. They are also members of the National Cyclone Club (NCC) and the ISU Alumni Association (ISUAA). Mel is on the NCC Advisory Board and on the ISUAA Board of Directors. In addition, the Weatherwax's made major gifts to the Bergstrom Indoor Facility campaign, the Hixson-Lied Student Success Center campaign and the new alumni center.
"I got involved with the Alumni Association for the first time when we traveled with them to the insight.com Bowl," Mel said. "Although at the time we weren't members, we were treated like family and welcomed by Jeff Johnson and his staff. We really felt like a part of the Iowa State family, so we felt that getting involved was the right thing to do."
Mel and Kathy's daughter Kara graduated from Iowa State in 1998. Their son Brian graduated from Drake University. With their children grown, Mel and Kathy have contributed much of their time to involvement in the community. Kathy is the president of Ankeny Dollars for Scholars and a representative on the Ankeny Community Education Advisory Council. Mel is involved with numerous non-profit boards and civic groups such as the United Way of Central, where he has been on the Campaign Cabinet for the past three years.
Here are a few questions for Mel Weatherwax
Q: What do you remember of your first Cyclone game?
A: I remember as a young adult watching the Cyclones play their last year of football on Clyde Williams field.
Q: What would you say are your most memorable Cyclone events?
A: Definitely going down to Arizona for the Insight Bowl was great. Also traveling up to Michigan to watch Eustachy's squad play in the Elite Eight game against Michigan State.
Q: Who were your favorite players for ISU?
A: Marcus Fizer could just dominate whenever he wanted to in the post. Dexter Green and Troy Davis were so amazing, every play for them was a potential touchdown.


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Talk to a local taxidermists they can usually get any hides needed.
I have been looking for an early season deer hide (still has the red/summer hair) for my NV buck. Mine was in not so good shape after he slid into second base three or four times. Anyone have one, or know someone with one?
Talk to a local taxidermists they can usually get any hides needed.
Can you handle the challenge.... hunt hard but safe!!
Ya, my buddy is the local taxidermis. He has tried all of is go to people, and I figured I need do some checking on my own. He can find regular mulie hides, but the early season ones I guess are hard to come by.
Might want to try E-Bay, my local taxy. can find them on there once in a while.
Shoot STR8
Will do that. Thanks.
I don't know how big of a hurry you are in. You may try letting some taxidermists know before next early season. It seems to me that guys always want the winter coats so a taxy might be able to get his hands on one from an early hunt if he knows ahead of time. Good luck.
Will try that. Thanks!!!
Check on the Taxidermy.net forum. You will find what you need there.


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« Project Runway: Season Finale Part One | Home | Models Of The Runway: Season Finale »
The Real Housewives Of New York City: A New Housewife And A Surprise For Bethenny!
April 15, 2010 08:19 PM by Jennifer
As if there wasn't enough drama on the The Real Housewives of New York City on BRAVO, meet Sonja, a divorcee and feisty friend of LuAnn's who has money and isn't afraid to show it. And Bethenny finds out news that will change her life forever. Things will never be the same!! Keep reading to find out her secret!
Bethenny revealed to Alex that she went to visit her father who is ill, and he refused to see her. They have not spoken in years, and even though he is extremely ill, he is unable to make amends with her for whatever transpired between them in the past. Bethenny thinks it comes from her mother taking her away from her father when she was 4, but whatever the reason, she realizes that she must get past it.
Ramona has a night alone with her husband, and she is waiting for him in lingerie when he comes home from work. But she has an alterior motive….she wants them to renew their weddig vows. She feels that everything in her life, like her jewelry and skin care lines, should be "renewed".
Meanwhile, on The Real Housewives of New York City on BRAVOAlex is preparing for Brooklyn Fashion weekend, Jill arrives, and is appalled at how the red carpet is next to a pile of trash, and calls it low rent, and how the precious Countess LuAnn would have not even gotten out of the car. God forbid the crowd doesn't part when they see LuAnn coming. Backstage, Ramona is getting advice from other models on how to walk since she will be in the show as well. I don't know what she was thinking when she came down the runway, but not only did she look like a robot that could only swing her shoulders from side to side, but her eyeballs were popping out of her head. In past episodes she looked this way, but tonight it was beyond crazy. Jill said she looked like an idiot! Kelly and Alex were also in the show, but they both looked totally normal. Jill was sitting in the front row the whole time just itching to get out of their since it is not a high class as prior fashion week shows she has attended.
When the show was over, Jill leaves pretty quickly, and Ramona was hurt by that. She should have been relieved because what she was looking for was a "good job" and what she should have gotten was "what the hell was wrong with your eyes?".
On another side of Manhattan on this episode of The Real Housewives of New York City on BRAVO, Bethenny is about to get the shock of her life…she takes a pregnancy test and it comes out positive!! She nervously calls Jason, but his phone keeps going to voice mail. She calls her best friend to tell her because she is so freaked out. She at least told one person, but she has a hard time reaching Jason to tell him he is going to be a daddy!
Jill is hosting an event for Kodak, and LuAnn shows up and tells Jill that she invited Sonja to the party, kind of an easy way to introduce her to the other housewives. Kelly is shocked to hear that Sonja had a weekly rendezvous with Max, a guy that Kelly had dated. But Sonja and Ramona have been friends for 20 years, and no one is shocked when she tells a story about how Ramona was a nut job years ago as well. Ramona also shows up, and asks Jill why she is hosting the event because the company's stock had gone down. She then opens her mouth about the fashion show, and says how she felt snubbed when Jill had quickly left. She is complaining they did not tell her she did a great job, she keeps going on and on about it, and Jill tells her that she should leave.
Ramona fires back and said that telling her to leave was a Bethenny thing to say. Ramona then goes after Kelly and LuAnn, and tells her she had alot of nerve to put down the company that Jill is representing. I think she was just jealous that Kodak picked Jill and not her. Then she says that Kelly is just jealous because she is not a business person like herself. She is so rude while Jill is speaking at the event, and tries to start a fight with Kelly, but ends up waling away. Ramona really needs to look watch these episodes and see how stupid she makes herself look. She really isn't racking up points in the friend department.
Tune in next Thursday at 10 p.m. EST for more drama on an all new episode of The Real Housewives of New York City on BRAVO . See you after the show!
Reality TV Magazine is your source for The Real Housewives Of New York City news. For other great The Real Housewives Of New York City News, please also check out SirLinksALot: The Real Housewives Of New York City.
Photos courtesy of: Bravotv.com
Topics: Bravo Reality TV Shows, The Real Housewives Of New York City |
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One Response to "The Real Housewives Of New York City: A New Housewife And A Surprise For Bethenny!"
sassy Says:
April 16th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
I think they are all self absored and care about no one but themselves. They have no idea what true friendship is about and they are all backstabbers. I have to admit this is my guilty pleasure and I think one of them really does have a heart


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Storing and Reviving Your Hot Rod - Sleeping BeautiesWritten by on May 1, 2011 Contributors: George Trosley Tips For Storing And Reviving Your Priceless Princess!
Rode hard and put away wet. That seems to be the normal way we store our most precious possessions. Cars, that is. Putting your baby away for the winter and thawing her out in spring takes more than just a fresh tank of petrol if you want her to survive another season.
You might be storing your car or an engine for any number of reasons: weather, money, waiting for the body shop guy to pull your number, money, divorce, more money, or you just got tired of it for a while. Whatever the impetus, paying attention up front and doing a little work on the back end will save time and cash when it comes time to fire the old girl up again.
There are a few questions you need to ask yourself before putting your project in mothballs. The most important of which is how long you are putting it up. If it's just for a few months or over the winter, you'll want to at least go over the basics.
Prep your storage area first. Make sure you aren't going to run into any issues where you need to move your car or engine to get to something important. If that means buying some new storage racks at Harbor Freight to make room where you don't use the car itself as a warehouse, so be it. Tell your spouse PHR made you do it.
Make sure you have plenty of antifreeze in the system even if you don't live in northern climes. Straight water in your system will turn good metal into rusty goo, and even Florida residents get an occasional freeze plug-popping cold wave now and then.
Fact: Mice like carpet padding. It's no fun seeing half of your interior converted to a condo for cheese feeders. Throwing your car on tall jackstands will help to keep the rodents from jumping inside. Don't forget a rag in the tailpipe and the air inlet as well. Now, leave a checklist on your dash so you remember what you did!
Charge the battery fully before doing anything. Changing the oil and checking the air filter, tranny fluid, brake fluid, and coolant come next. A quick leak check under the car will point out any real trouble spots.
Smell the gas. Pungent varnish odor equals bad gas. No matter how good the rest of the car is, if the gas is bad you'll need to flush the whole fuel system before firing it up. If the gas smells decent, pouring in a bottle of water remover sure wouldn't hurt.
Prime the oil system, fill the carb bowls with a little gas from a squirt container, and hit the key. She should fire right up if everything is right and the stars are in alignment. Now it's time to remove the top layer of dried-out rubber on your tires by means of a long smoky burnout. Rinse and repeat as necessary.
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Yeah, we usually think lawn mowers too, but fuel stabilizer will do great in your gas tank at keeping your $4-a-gallon gas from turning to varnish. Fill the tank to the brim with good quality gas before storage to keep rust away.Valvesprings that remain compressed over a long period of time will take a set and drop some spring pressure. If you are storing a car or engine for several months or more, back the rockers off completely to make sure the springs are fresh for the next running.Brake fluid is hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs moisture. The result is water and rust in the brake system. When getting your ride ready to go, bleed the brakes thoroughly until fresh clean brake fluid comes out of the bleeder screws.A good fogging oil like the stuff from AMSOIL sprayed in the cylinders will keep the bores from rusting. Also, don't be afraid to apply another dose and rotate the engine over by hand several times before firing it up.When you yank the spark bolts to fog the cylinders, you can make a quick assessment of the engine condition. Is it using oil, eating pistons, or running perfectly? You might be doing a winter rebuild based on how they look. Either way, throw in a fresh set when she's ready to run again to avoid running down the battery trying to fire fouled plugs.If the engine has been sitting for an extended amount of time, it would be a good idea to run a leakdown test. Almost 30 percent leakdown on this engine is a sign the rings are done.A cheap antifreeze tester will show the strength of the mixture quickly. Over time, the coolant becomes acidic and can start to eat away at your engine parts, especially aluminum cylinder heads and water necks.Even though the coolant tested "good," the rusty color and nastiness in the radiator scream "flush me!"An old distributor from the junkyard can easily be converted into an oil system primer. With fresh AMSOIL and a new filter in place, run the primer for at least a solid minute, and then crank the engine over with the primer running. This will ensure that the bearings and lifters don't immediately die when you fire it up.


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Popular Hot Rodding Mustang - Putting it to the TestWritten by on August 28, 2003 Testing PHR's Mustang at Hotchkis Trak Day Editor Race
Don't bring a knife to a gunfight. What's a more perfect place to put our ongoing Project PHR Mustang to the test than at Hotchkis On-Track Day? If it was a month later, it would be even better! But, we can't make excuses-we didn't win. Things went pretty well and we had a blast, but not getting that ATI ProCharger system on board or at least swapping out the rear end ratio for 3.73:1 gears guaranteed our honors as "First Loser" at best.
PHR has been covering the annual Hotchkis On-Track Day since its inception, as it's the biggest and most prestigious event of its type on the West Coast. In the past, the event has been a place for car guys, industry folks, and handling-crazed enthusiasts to drag their stuff up to Central California's Buttonwillow Raceway for a day of brake melting, tire eating activity. For 2003, Hotchkis Performance and its supporting cast (including Baer, Flowmaster, and Yokohama, and associates at Axis Wheels, Centerforce, K&N, MagnaCharger, Optima, Red Line Oil, SEMA, and Sparco) created a special Media Day in addition to the traditional day for everyone else complete with timing and scoring. Put the clock on magazine editors and something dumb is bound to happen.
Actually, it was a well-run competition for a first try. Multiple categories were created for 24 entries, splitting the editors and their project cars into classes for front or rear-wheel drive, modified or stock, and a catchall class for exhibition vehicles (read racecars). To compete, the car had to be a true project vehicle with modifications "made on the pages" and the driver had to be an actual staffer on the book-no ringers allowed with car or driver. Though there were a few odd classifications, it was a fair shootout, and the results surprised many. The Media Day featured slalom, acceleration, braking, and road course testing to see what magazines have the fastest project cars and what editors have the best skills at the wheel. Comparisons between the sport compact cars and both the early and late street machines are often tough to make, but this would be our best shot-here, the stopwatch is god. Featuring amazing power to weight ratios and a nimble handling in a small package, these little cars are hard to beat in these scenarios. As you'll see, we hung in there pretty well. Since this editor has the most competition experience and has overseen the Mustang's buildup, I got the driver's honors. I think that's using the term "honor" quite loosely.
While you'd think that the road course category would demand the most skill from the entrants, the slalom test isn't far behind. We were given four runs down the 600ft course-two each direction-and hitting a cone added a second to your time. Experience in this category plays a big part, as those with the testing experience know how to squeeze little bits of speed out and can get the car on the edge.
Our Mustang should have had a huge advantage over every musclecar in the park thanks to our Maximum Motorsports Grip in a Box suspension setup and the Yokohama A-032-R rubber. However, 5.0 Mustang & Super Fords editor at large Tom Wilson brought out their red racer with the same suspension, a 3.73:1 gear set (which we needed!), and grippier Nitto NT-555RII tires. Their car had a little more fine tuning and many more track days than ours, but it was pure courage that gave them the nod over PHR-Wilson's runs at just over 60 mph (with one DNF and a cone hit) was barely enough to edge our run.
I pussyfooted on the first pass, recording only a 57 mph average, but picked it up with two more runs over 60 mph for 9th overall. HOT ROD's Dave Freiburger also wimped out on the first pass, but picked it up a bit and finished just behind us-his 2001 Mustang Bullitt's best lap averaged 60.07 mph where our Mustang went 61.24 mph (Wilson's ride stormed to a 63.13 mph best!). Chevy High Performance and Car Craft's big cars weren't even close to the Ford product (likely due to stock GM steering boxes with slower response). The winning Honda recorded a 67 mph pass with a 65 mph average, to give you an idea of just how much quicker a light and nimble car is over the big domestic product.
For the acceleration tests, the Hotchkis boys used the same mile-long piece of pavement that stretches through the back of the road course for both the slalom and the 1/4 mile tests. It's fitting, actually, as many magazines are using regular pavement (not prepared drag strips) for their acceleration tests due to track rental issues. The numbers are a little less impressive, but they're very good showing at the relative difference in all these project cars. We had two tries to record our best effort, but some didn't need two runs.
This was our car's poorest finish at 10th overall, a result we predicted. With less than 270hp at the rear wheels and almost 3,600 lbs. to push, our SOHC 4.6L Mustang was no match for the project cars with more power. We recorded a 14.42-second pass at 98.31 mph with 3.27:1 gears-a shift into fourth gear would lose momentum, yet leaving it in third faced the fuel cutoff and rev limiter. Oh, well. Jeff Smith, editor of Car Craft, ran his well-sorted '65 Chevelle with its 420ci Lingenfelter small-block and a complete Global West suspension package to the front of the pack in the drag race with a 12.76-second ET at an impressive 116 mph. The next two best passes were posted by import cars, Dave Coleman's turbocharged '89 Nissan Silvia (13.14 at 108.95 mph) and Pablo Mazlumian's turbo M3 (13.26 at 112 mph). The big-time speed on these runs lead on to the limited traction.
The technology that anti-lock brakes brings to the motoring world divides the testing at Media Day into two groups-it's not that those who have it go to the front of the list, but that they don't have to work as hard to get there. For the ABS cars, ours included, the braking exercise is a no-brainer since you mash the pedal as hard as you can! Many didn't have it so easily, as cars that had been scoring well in the other exercises went to the bottom of the order with flat-spotted tires.
Our Mustang scored 6th overall in the braking exercise, with an 60-0 mph stopping distance of 119.96 feet, averaged over two runs. That's not bad for a relatively heavy car in a field loaded with lightweight stuff that should have waxed us! The best runs were less than 10 feet shorter, That Brembo Cobra R kit worked well with Hawk's HP+ pads and Yokohama's sticky rubber. We almost swapped for the Hawk "Blue" pads that are designed for track day activities, but without a chance to build temperature, we wouldn't have done as well.
All of the other events created interesting numbers over which to ponder, but it was the road course activities that had everyone excited. That's where a mix of courage, skills, car prep, and engineering could combine (or collide) to show off each magazine's true merit. The other three events took much longer than anyone figured so actual track time was quite short, involving a quick lead and follow to learn the driving line, a short practice session, and the actual timed session. Hotchkis sent us out four at a time in consecutive order by car number, with a rough mixing of car order to put the obviously faster cars in front (thus avoiding passing, which still occurred...). We were allowed a warm up lap, two "flying laps" to be timed, and a cool down lap. That was it.
The first session was impressive, as Jeff Smith's Chevelle set down a stellar lap of 2:15.11 seconds around Buttonwillow. As a comparison, Freiburger, in Hot Rod's slightly hopped up Bullitt, ran 2:23.21 and 2:25.31. In bone stock trim around the same circuit (one year earlier), our Mustang went 2:26 and with race tires, we went about 2:21.00 seconds. All I knew was that we had to beat Jeff Smith. I was aware that the European Car M3 was blindingly fast and was in the session right in front of me, but the bragging rights and subsequent embarrassment of losing to that car don't cross over into our domestic performance industry. The M3 dipped into the 2:08s, but I didn't hear of it until my session was over. I drove my first lap hard but safe, as I kept telling myself, "Just post a time, then let one rip!" I had posted a 2:10.40 and was storming on the second lap until my plan failed-climbing up "Magic Mountain," I ran out of fuel! What was I thinking, trying to save 10 pounds in a 3,600-pound car? That made for an interesting exit off the hill, where the throttle needs to be fully matted for a controlled slide through the next kink! A few swerves to slosh fuel and stall or two later, I'd run 2:10.59 seconds.
Surely my second lap would have been a least a second or two quicker, but my aunt would be my uncle if she had....well, you get what I mean. We'd beat the other musclecar books in the best category, but weren't the quickest car. Dave Coleman in Sport Compact Car's Silvia replica went into the 2:07s! PHR was third on the road course and sixth overall, losing out by a hair to 5.0 Mustang's better passes in the slalom.
Looking back, there's no way they could have beat us with a blower on board, and they might not have beat us with a little more ratio-that car drives like it's always in the wrong gear! Other than that, you can't argue with the exercise we touted a year ago. We wanted to judge a car with the road course as a measuring stick, and starting in the 2:26s and ending up with conservative laps in the 2:10s (exactly one year later) shows the potential of Ford's design. Adding another 150hp to the rear wheels ought to put this car into another dimension and it will still drive well on the street. Thanks to Auto Meter, B&M, BBK, Brembo, Corbeau, Discount Tire Direct, Hawk Brake Pads, Magnaflow, Maximum Motorsports, Red Line Oil, Yokohama, and most of all, Ford Motor Company's Team Mustang, for getting us this far. We hear the Hotchkis Media
The formula works. For a reasonable fee, drag out your car and lap it for a day. If this sound likes fun, your common sense is showing itself. We're almost tired of telling everyone how cool Hotchkis Track Day and the similar events can be and they're only getting better.
With all of the magazine people burned out from Friday's activities, Saturday's traditional Hotchkis Day at Buttonwillow had a lighter crowd than usual. That was part of the plan, as they closed entries much earlier to ensure that each participant had his or her tongue hanging out by the third session. When the fourth came around, they'd gotten their money's worth and had to concentrate hard to keep it on the track and "bring it home" without a scratch. This driving stuff is hard work.
The turnout had plenty of trucks, including an impressive Chevy and more than a few Dakota R/Ts showing up to prove their point as Mopar's only late model V-8 product. A few C5s were in attendance, including Mark Richter's always-changing black beast and the MagnaCharger blown Centerforce ride built by RK Sport. Though there were a few Mustangs pounding around, the late-model F bodies had their numbers (and had them covered in numbers).
Are you looking for an East Coast version of this event? How about a round at Mid Ohio? We'd like to see a Track Day at the new Barber track in Alabama. Let the mail pour in! Be sure to drop us a note and visit www.hotchkis.net to let them know you want them to spread the wealth. In the meantime, check out www.nasaproracing.com or www.tracktime.com to see if there's a similar event in your area.
More Photos From This Article View Slideshow
John Hotchkis has taken his career as one of America's best young road racers (with time in both British F3 against F1s best and in IMSA GTP) and used it to focus on suspension components. His true labor of love is driving and working with his staff to make this annual event go off so well. Hotchkis makes you want to drive and makes you glad you don't have to drive against him!Tom Wilson's Mustang, representing 5.0 Mustang had nearly the same suspension package, but the Maximum Motorsports cage might make it a bit stiffer. That cage isn't why he beat us in the slalom--he simply drove harder. His well sorted ride went 14.31 in the quarter mile, averaged 2:20 seconds around the road course, and went 123 feet in the braking--all just enough to edge us out by a point.Nice guy John Naderi had Super Street's new Skunk2-prepped Civic Si project flying through the slalom at an average of 67 mph to lead all others. Naderi admitted that this rice rocket had more steam than he had skills--takes a big man to say that. This combo took third overall.Hot Rod staffer Matt King experienced a slight mishap in his '65 Biscayne. King ran out of grip on his first slalom run, but came back to post a respectable 57.13 mph average. Hey, at least he's looking in the right direction.Our Mustang really does handle well-experienced spectators came up to us saying, "Boy does that car look great on the track!" If only the driver pushed it harder, I say! One conservative pass cost us at least a position in the overall.Our Mustang never promised to be a drag racer, but it's getting better. We went 14.42 seconds with a wisp of wheel spin and 14.46 with the traction control on (oops...) and on the rev limiter in the top of third gear (on purpose!). It'll be a second quicker very soon, which would have put us near the top three, but that doesn't matter now!
If there was any controversy at Hotchkis Track Day, it was over Jeff Smith's Chevelle and its test under braking. The Stalker radar caught it going from 60 to zero in 101 feet! Many of us balked, but John Hotchkis swears it was possible. Smith kept his mouth shut. His second run, which looked great, was 114.89 feet. You decide. Needless to say, Smith and Car Craft won that category (as well as the drag race) and the 14-inch Baer Track system works flawlessly after years of pounding. Kudos to the DOT-legal, 17-inch Kumho V700 Victo Racer tires, too, as this ol' Chevelle beat us and our ABS by five feet.Super Chevy ad manager John Barkley got a first hand lesson in tire management at Buttonwillow. If you smash the brake pedal in his cool '68 Malibu wagon, you'll manage to flat spot the tires. And, no, John, we don't know of a shop that can shave them for you-you'll have to buy new ones!With the exception of the road course competition (which was hand timed), a Stalker radar connected to a laptop was the source of the Media Day data. The Hotchkis boys teamed with Yokohama's crew to time and score everyone, which we appreciated.Sport Compact Car's Dave Coleman is an accomplished rally driver and probably does more testing than anyone in the business (excluding his partner in crime, Josh Jaquot). His stealth black Nissan Sylvia, a 240 SX-based hybrid with enough real Japanese parts to impress the toughest customs official, is brutally fast and tough to drive. His 2:07-second lap was a true "Hail Mary" attempt that worked. When you hear about the import crowd's "drifting" craze that took 10 years to hit our shores, think of this car. Except it doesn't need the goofy setup to make it slide-it drives like that anyway.On the road course, our Mustang really shined. With the amount of work that's in it and the money invested in my driving experience, it should! The car felt great, with lots of grip and the Corbeau seat and belt system might be worth a few seconds out of stability and driving position. The lack of power wasn't so bad, but the lack of a 3.73:1 gear made it drive like it was always in the wrong gear, with either too many revs or not enough. More than anything, it was a blast to drive! Our time was enough for third on the road course and helped us to sixth overall.Here's the overall winner, Pablo Mazlumian in his fantastic '95 M3 entered by European Car magazine. This magazine doesn't "endorse" this type of vehicle, but we have to show it respect. With giant Brembo brakes, an Bavarian Engine Exchange-supplied DOHC 3.2L 6-cyl from a '97 model, EVOSPORT's turbo tuning, Ground Control suspension, and Pirelli P Zero Corsas (it makes 370 hp with a safe 13 pounds of boost. This 3,200 pound beast does everything well and didn't even show its strengths, since the straights on this track configuration are relatively short. Cool guy, great car, and a deserved winner--we'll kick his ass next year (and he knows it).


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Hi everybody,
I was having a look at the daily mail report sent to the admin account, and I found that there is always a discrepancy in the total count of sent/received messages to our domain. The grand totals tells that 16747 messages were received and 31069 delivered; the most "sent to" domain (Host/Domain Summary: Message Delivery table) is our domain with 22386 mails, that is also the most "received from" (Host/Domain Summary: Messages Received table) too, but only with 4366. Why there is such difference? The number of emails sent to and received from our domain should not be equal?
Thank you in advance


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(KSDK Sports) -- Another top baseball award for Yadier Molina. Today at the Winter Meetings in Nashville, Tennessee, MLB.com held their annual Greatness in Baseball Yearly Awards, aka, the GIBBY's.
Today, Molina was named the Defensive Player of the Year.
The selections were based on voting by media, front-office personnel, MLB alumni, fans at MLB.com and the Society for American Baseball Research.
Among the other winners listed by mlb.com:
Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera was named MVP. The Mets' R.A. Dickey claimed the Starting Pitcher of the Year honor, outdueling BBWAA AL Cy Young Award winner David Price of the Rays. The Closer of the Year is the Rays' Fernando Rodney. Sergio Romo, who finished the season as the Giants' closer, was the choice as Setup Man of the Year after spending most of the season in that role.
Posey, rebounding brilliantly from a broken ankle in 2011, is the Comeback Player of the Year. His AL West rival, Chase Headley, is Breakout Hitter of the Year after driving in 115 runs for the Padres.
Pablo Sandoval, Posey's colorful teammate, powered his way to Postseason MVP, highlighted by his three-homer performance in Game 1 of the World Series against the Tigers in San Francisco.
The Orioles' Buck Showalter was selected Manager of the Year. Billy Beane is the Executive of the Year for a series of shrewd moves in lifting the Athletics to a stunning AL West title at the expense of the two-time defending league champion Rangers.


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Im definately no expert, but have had several black labs that we trained to hunt birds. Not sure about the yelping, every dog has their own attitude. But I would say that will fade fast, as it did with my most recent dog within the first few nights. Ive never trained her to hunt sheds, only pheasants and doves, but I have learned that teaching them obedience is the #1 priority. Once they've learned to mind you, then you can start to teach them how or what to hunt. Good luck with your lab, they want to please, but you have to let them know YOU are in charge from the start or they may never amount to much. The bloodline/natural hunting instinct of your particular dog and amount of time you give them in the field early on will also determine how good of hunting dog they will become. They do best if it's routine for them instead of a rarity to get to go "hunting" whatever it may be.
IT- He probably just needs to be let out to go to the bathroom. Even in a kennel that big, dogs really don't like to go to the bathroom in their kennel. When I crate trained my dog, I kept her in a kennel that wasn't much bigger than her, and let her out twice a night for the first week or so, then only once per night. Once she could hold it all night long, I quit keeping her in the kennel overnight.
How old is the pup?
My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.
11 weeks old. thats a good point, i figures as big as the kennel was it would be fine. ill try that tonight. if i plan on waking up at 3 am to let it out that may feel better than getting woke up at 3am
Ive had pups get bladder infections from holding it too long. Makes you feel terrible!
also, i keep the watter inside the big kennel with him. bad idea? im going to vet tomorrow to figure out how much i should be feeding it. ive been giving a cup in morn and cup at night.
Water is good. Lots of clean water will help get rid of the puppy poops quicker. Regarding food, he's growing like crazy right now, you probably can't over feed him. Some will say its better to limit the food, so they grow a little slower, and therefore grow stronger... When mine was 3-6 months old, I was feeding her 4 cups a day, at 6 months to a year, she at 6 cups a day. At two, she's back down to 4 cups a day, but, she's a very active dog..
My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.
Some good info up above. I also used Water Dog to give me a lot of insight and helped with the basics. I also got Richard Wolters video "Water Dog." It is amazing how he teaches dogs to follow hand signals and whistle commands. The video is worth buying just to see that. I would love to incorporate those commands into a shed dog one day. But back to the subject. Use both brown and white antlers for training because if you only use one color then the dog learns to find one color. Use all sizes so that they learn to find little forkies and spikes as well as 4-points and bigger. I've never stopped my dogs from bringing me bones because there are many times that antlers are few and far between and finding bones keeps them excited. A huge added bonus to retrieving bones is that bones many times lead to DEADHEADS and we all love DEADHEADS. You know when youir dog smells a carcass because the head shoots up and they take off at a fast pace making a beeline to thier destination. I can't tell you how many deadheads my Daisy has brought me. For young puppies I cut the tips off of small forkies and I choose antlers that are smooth without eyeguards or little pointy trash around the eyeguards. You don't want the antler to hurt the pup in the beginning. Later when they get a little older then they get every shape and size, color and variation I can think of. When they are good at finding antlers I like to train at night to help them use thier nose more. I hide antlers in grass, puddles, hay stacks, sticking out of my truck exhaust pipes, in the house, in the horse barn, in the flowers etc, etc. Got plenty more to say but not enough time. fatrascal.
That's really cool. Great pics. I would really like to train my lab to do the same. I just got my him back from a trainer out of Shelley ID. Worste trainer in the world my dog came back super skinny with scars all over his legs. He was obviously beaten. He tucks his tail and wets all over if you reach for him too quick. I am heart broken with the situation. I hope I can repair the damage done to my lab.
Dog training is really not hard, but you need lots of patience and repetition. It is never to early to start them. Obedience is the foundation for everything else. Start with simple one word commands...sit, stay, etc. Remember puppies are like kids, they have a very short attention span and need to be praised for good work. I am dead set against giving dogs food treats when they perform, praise is enough. Also remember a dog can have an off day just like humans can. Don't make training sessions too long and end them all on a positive note. If the dog is having an off day, do something they do well (like sit), then end the session with lots of love.
Once the obedience is there, then start the field work. I like to use a whistle to get their attention. Use it every time you feed them, they will get the idea fast. To teach hand signals (these and the whistle are the best firld tools you have), I like to use the baseball field method. Lay out a baseball diamond (in your mind) with you (the trainer) always at home plate and the dog always on the pitchers mound. The dog needs to be retrieving a dummy to you by now. Use your left hand and throw the dummy to third base (dog still sitting at pitchers mound), then blow the whistle and tell them fetch while gestering with your hand to where you threw the dummy.Repeat same with other hand to the first base side. For using second base, throw the dummy over their head and tell the to "Get back" while motioning with your hand. You get the idea. Hunting in the field these hand signal/whistle communications with your dog are invaluble.
I really don't like shock collars. If a dog is that unruly, they probably won't be that good in the field. Usually someone screwed them up sometime and this is what happens.
I've trained quite a few dogs and the more you do it the better you get.....sound familiar? Hope this helps some.
Colorado Cowboy
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ibm.com Community
Convergence of Governance, Risk & Compliance, Basel II and Solvency II (Track 1014)
Erwin Boeren 270002C43V firstname.lastname@example.com | | Tags:  openpages risk & of (track ii solvency governance convergence management 1014) and grc basel compliance | 0 Comments | 3,582 Visits
Convergence of Governance, Risk & Compliance, Basel II and Solvency II (Track 1014)
IBM Vision 2012, Tuesday May 16th, 16:45 – 17:45 pm I will be presenting the Convergence
of Governance, Risk & Compliance, Basel II and Solvency II.
In this session I will take you through the most common questions I received from our customers facing Basel II and Solvency II. I will help you understand the challenges from an Operational Risk perspective and speak about how my clients have overcome these challenges.
Convergence, Risk Adoption, Risk Montoring, Loss Registration, Risk Reporting
and Dashboarding and Regulatory Reporting are topics that will be discussed in
this session.
Hope to see you in Orlando next week!
Twitter : #Vision12
Blog post by Erwin Boeren
Senior Governance, Risk & Compliance specialist IBM
Twitter : http
LinkedIn : http
Convergence of Performance Management and Risk Management - Part 2
Erwin Boeren 270002C43V firstname.lastname@example.com | | Tags:  grc risk reporting ibm compliance fsr cognos solvency regulatory ii basel openpages | 0 Comments | 3,892 Visits
Convergence of Performance Management and Risk Management - Part 2
the increase of the Governance, Risk & Compliance maturity level at many of
my clients I see that clients start to realize the benefits of the integration
of GRC activities in their Performance Management cycle. Therefore a follow up
on my previous article around Risk Management and the convergence with
Performance Management.
Let me share some insights on Risk & Performance Management initiatives that keep clients busy around Europe. The following 4 items came up in the last 3 months.
1. Cost control and process performance improvement give us the opportunity to embed controls in our process. Lessons learned from Six Sigma and Lean can give us guidance here.
2. How do I manage organizational and regulatory change and monitor the impact on business processes, policies and my risk and control framework?
3. Trending topic is emerging risks, am I able to identity risks that are coming to me over time?
4. Integrated Financial and Risk reporting, an excellent example of 'Where Performance Management meets Risk Management'.
Cost control and Process improvements
Implementing and testing controls has become a huge cost for many organizations. That is why some of my clients are now looking for a way to reduce cost by embedding controls in their existing business processes. This goes hand in hand with the global initiative on cost reduction. While optimizing or even re designing core business processes internal controls are being embedded in the process. What I see is that the organizations that involve process owners and process contributors are most successful. This is an initiative that we have seen before in Lean Six Sigma projects. The only way to optimize processes and to reduce waste is to involve the process owners. Instead of increasing regulatory pressure we should seek a solution in this area in my opinion. Business cases around this have proven to be very successful and savings up to millions of Euros per year have been achieved.
Regulatory change
Regulatory changes are a huge concern of many risk, compliance, legal and audit professionals. How can we monitor these changes and how can we understand the impact on our organization? Taking this together with the fact that policy management is changing from a 'must do' once a year to a continuous process tells us that an integrated approach to Governance, Risk & Compliance is necessary to drive performance. I come across clients that have a monthly Performance Report that shows how they derived business objectives from their policies and how they are performing on a compliance level to these objectives. What risks did they identify in this process and how will they respond to these risks? Organizations realize that they need to understand the correlation between processes, policies, regulations, business objectives, risks and controls and how they might impact each other. An integrated GRC view is the only way to face this challenge.
Emerging Risk Modelling
One of the trending topics among customers is Emerging Risks. Can we model risks that we see coming and can we follow up on risks that are getting closer or fading away? Analytical Risk modeling is an answer to this question. This also let you perform risk forecasting with different scenarios. Interesting question is how the increase of a risk exposure in an operating entity will impact my group level exposure? Risk Analytics, derived from the Performance Management area can help us answer these questions. A financial performance management cycle contains the exact same characteristics.
Integrated Financial and Risk performance reporting
Financial and Risk reporting are standard items in today's Annual Reports, Tax statements, Management reports and Regulatory reports. The big question is how do I keep all of this information organized in such a way that I understand the source of the information, the transformation it has gone through, the owner of the information and most important when information changes at the last moment that all information output contains the latest version? No bigger reputational risk than sending out inconsistent information to stakeholders. Some organizations saw their share price drop with 25% due to inconsistent external reporting. One of my clients has implemented a solution that orchestrates all of these information sources with workflow capabilities and even XBRL output. From a risk perspective this is a great mitigation of your reputational risk and an excellent example of 'Where Performance Management meets Risk Management'.
Blog post by Erwin Boeren
Senior Governance, Risk & Compliance specialist IBM Europe
Twitter : http
LinkedIn : http
Convergence of Risk Management and Performance Mangement
Erwin Boeren 270002C43V email@example.com | | Tags:  analytics grc busness management openpages ibm erwin boeren performance risk | 0 Comments | 1,777 Visits
Last year IBM acquired OpenPages as a strategic move into the area of Governance, Risk and Compliance. The lasest announcement to acquire Algorithmics (quantitative risk management) shows the continuous commitment of IBM in the GRC market. GRC software will integrate into the Business Analytics Software group, the area where the former acquisitions like Cognos, SPSS and Clarity systems already resides.
Now that Risk Management is evolving, more and more organizations are starting an enterprise approach to risk management. And this is where I see the need for Risk and Performance Management convergence.
In past Risk Management implementations I see that a major portion of time and budget was spent on Risk Reporting and Dashboarding. Especially the need for self service reporting, where users can ad hoc create their own risk reports, is growing. We do not want to wait in the queue waiting for our report to be created. 2 days later you missed the opportunity to respond and the loss is there.
With this self service capability the question automatically pops up 'can I trust my data'. And now we are back in the area of data governance. This is exactly where the area of Performance Management is today.
Apart from these reporting and dashboarding capabilities Enterprise Risk Management means alignment of risks and controls to the strategic initiatives of the organization. What will prevent me from reaching my business goals? Isn't this defined as a risk? And how will we prevent this from happening? Wasn't that defined as a control?
Even more interesting are questions like, 'What if I was able to perform risk scenario planning?', 'What if I could predict risks from happening?' or 'What is the correlation between the risks that have materialized?'.
And there is the proof that Risk Management and Performance Management have lots in common and should be integrated. Lets call it Business Analytics.
Erwin Boeren
Governance, Risk & Compliance Leader
IBM IOT Southwest Europe
Governance. Risk and compliance on the iPad
Erwin Boeren 270002C43V firstname.lastname@example.com | | Tags:  openpages grc ipad solvency reporting | 0 Comments | 1,672 Visits
With Cognos 10.1.1 released you must have noticed the ability of having your reports and dashboards on mobile devices like iPad and iPhone.
With these mobile capabilities CROs (Chief Risk Officers) will now have the ability to measure risk from their mobile devices. For volatile risk areas like Market and Credit Risk this can make a huge difference.
IBM developed a risk monitoring system for CROs where one single version of the truth is provided of different risk areas like Credit Risk, Market Risk, Counterparty Credit Risk, Liquidity Risk, Basel II, Solvency II and Operational Risk. Not only does a CRO have the ability to monitor all these risk areas but he can also monitor the correlation between those risk areas and he is able to respond immediately to changes. Responses can immediately be formulated in the integrated social media platform.
One version of the truth and guaranteed quality of your data is simple to say but how do you govern this? This is where IBMs investment in data models starts to pay off. Since decades IBM develops and maintains data models for financial services including out of the box technical and business definitions. This enables organizations to come to one definition of risk over the entire organization. Taking definitions centrally will add value in the process of taking down the silod approach we spoke about in earlier articles. It will also help you in the accountability process of the business. Finally it is the business that should own the business definitions.
As discussed in our previous published blog (The convergence of GRC and Performance Management) Business Analytics capabilities like risk forecasting, risk adjusted profitability calculations, scenario planning and predictive risk analysis are part of this risk monitoring system called FIRM (Finance Integrated Risk Management).
The new regulation for Insurance companies, Solvency II requires organizations to plan their risk assessments and capital requirements 2 to 5 years ahead and to reflect impact on financial positions when a risk materializes. All this means that an integrated approach to risk management is a must. In next blogs we will go deeper into the Solvency II regulation.
GRC Maturity: From Disorganized to Integrated Risk and Performance - Part I
Liz Andrews 2700041WEU firstname.lastname@example.com | | Tags:  grc risk openpages | 0 Comments | 1,903 Visits
This is the first in a series of four blog posts where we will present risk and compliance speaker and thought leader, Michael Rasmussen's, GRC maturity model. For more insightful information on GRC and to exchange ideas with risk and finance colleagues, come see us in Orlando at Vision 2012.
Success in today's dynamic business environment requires organizations to integrate, build and support business processes with an enterprise view of governance, risk management and compliance (GRC). Without an integrated view of risk and compliance, the scattered and nonintegrated approaches of the past fail and expose the business to unanticipated risk.
In a mature GRC program, the organization has an integrated process, information and technology architecture that provides visibility across risk and compliance domains. It offers an integrated approach for business managers and executives to leverage GRC data for risk-aware decision-making and resource allocation.
Inevitable Failure: Managing GRC in Silos
The multifaceted risk environment
Risk to the business is like the hydra in mythology — organizations combat risk, only to find more risk springing up to threaten them. Executives are constantly reacting to risk appearing around them and fail to actively manage and understand the interrelationship of risk across the enterprise.
The dynamic and global nature of business is particularly challenging to risk management. As organizations expand operations and business relationships (e.g., vendors, supply chain, outsourcers, service providers, consultants and staffing) their risk profile grows exponentially. Organizations need to stay on top of their game by monitoring risk to their business internally (e.g., strategy, processes and internal controls) and externally (e.g., competitive, economic, political, legal and geographic environments) to stay competitive in today's market. What may seem an insignificant risk in one area can have profound impact on others.
Organizations are increasingly aware of the critical need to link risk management and corporate performance management. To manage corporate performance, the organizations must understand risk and make risk-informed business decisions.
In the area of regulatory risk, organizations face an expanding regulatory environment with rapidly increasing requirements that burden the business. Organizations face expanding regulations, increased fines and sanctions, and aggressive regulators and prosecutors around the world. Reputation and brand protection is also a significant compliance and risk management issue in a global environment.
Isolated risk and compliance initiatives introduce greater risk
Managing GRC activities in disconnected silos leads the organization to inevitable failure. Reactive, document-centric and manual processes for GRC fail to actively manage risk in the context of business strategy and performance, and leave the organization blind to intricate relationships of risk across the business. Siloed GRC initiatives never see the big picture and fail to put GRC in the context of business strategy, objectives and performance, resulting in complexity, redundancy and failure. The organization is not thinking about how GRC processes and controls can be designed to meet a range of risk and compliance needs. An ad hoc approach to GRC results in poor visibility across the organization and its control environment, because there is no framework or architecture for managing risk and compliance as an integrated part of business. When the organization approaches risk in scattered silos that do not collaborate with each other, there is no possibility to be intelligent about risk and understand its impact on the organization.
A nonintegrated approach to GRC impacts business performance and how it is managed and executed, resulting in:
The pain organizations have expressed
Siloed GRC processes, though effective in their own silos, are ineffective at an aggregate level, as the organization does not have a complete view of GRC in the context of the business. Corporate Integrity finds organizations that lack a collaborative, integrated and enterprise approach to GRC have:
Continue on to Part II in this series: GRC Maturity — Measuring a New Paradigm for Risk and Compliance
GRC Maturity: From Disorganized to Integrated Risk and Performance - Part II
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This is the second in a series of four blog posts where we present risk and compliance speaker and thought leader, Michael Rasmussen's, GRC maturity model. For more insightful information on GRC and to exchange ideas with risk and finance colleagues, come see us in Orlando at Vision 2012.
GRC Maturity — Measuring a New Paradigm for Risk and Compliance
Lacking an integrated view of GRC results in business processes, partners, employees and systems that behave like leaves blowing in the wind. Modern business requires a new paradigm for tackling risk and compliance issues across the enterprise. No longer can organizations afford to focus on single risk and compliance issues as unrelated projects; nor can they allow software Band-Aids that are not integrated with the business to masquerade as GRC. A targeted strategy addressing GRC through common processes, information and technology gets to the root of the problem.
With changing and diverse risks bearing down on the organization, there is a clear need to tackle the problem at its root and develop a mature approach to GRC. Instead of treating each risk and compliance issue as an individual problem, organizations need to define a common process, information and technology architecture to manage GRC across the range of issues.
To address these issues, leading organizations have adopted a common framework, information architecture and shared processes to effectively manage risk and compliance, enable risk-aware decision-making, increase efficiencies, and be agile in response to the needs of a dynamic business environment.
The questions organizations must ask:
A well-defined GRC environment will not only do risk assessment and modeling, but will also deliver definition, communication and training on risk-taking and accountability. The organization must map the interrelationship of risks to controls, policies, enterprise assets (e.g., business process, employees, relationships, physical assets and logical assets), and incidents to business strategy, objectives and corporate performance.
Mature GRC delivers better business outcomes because of stronger integrated information, which will:
Architect integrated GRC systems and processes
A properly defined GRC architecture is built upon common process, information and technology components that are adaptive to a dynamic business environment and integrate with critical enterprise applications. No longer is risk and compliance about an annual audit; it now involves continuous monitoring in an ever-changing environment. GRC has to be sustainable as an ongoing and integrated part of business processes. A successful and mature GRC strategy has a symbiotic influence on the variety of business stakeholder roles and their common requirements.
Organizations need to be intelligent about what processes and technologies they deploy. The goal is to make an effective decision once, and comply with many regulations, manage a range of risks and maximize value from the convergence of technology, people and process. A sustainable approach to GRC results in an organization looking to the future and mitigating risk in the course of business, as opposed to putting out fires by reacting to risk and control issues as they arise.
Mature GRC enables the organization to understand performance in the context of risk and compliance. It achieves the definition of GRC, which is "a capability that enables an organization to reliably achieve objectives [GOVERNANCE] while addressing uncertainty [RISK MANAGEMENT] and acting with integrity [COMPLIANCE]." Effective and mature GRC delivers:
Continue on to Part III in this series: Five Stages of GRC Maturity
GRC Maturity: From Disorganized to Integrated Risk and Performance - Part III
Liz Andrews 2700041WEU firstname.lastname@example.com | | Tags:  risk openpages grc | 0 Comments | 1,862 Visits
This is the third in a series of four blog posts where we will present risk and compliance speaker and thought leader, Michael Rasmussen's, GRC maturity model. For more insightful information on GRC and to exchange ideas with risk and finance colleagues, come see us in Orlando at Vision 2012.
Five Stages of GRC Maturity
Mature GRC is a seamless part of governance and operations. It requires the organization to take a top-down view of risk, led by the executives and the board, and made part of the fabric of business, not an unattached layer of oversight. It also involves bottom-up participation where business functions at all levels identify and monitor uncertainty and the impact of risk.
Corporate Integrity has developed the GRC Maturity Model to articulate an organization's maturity in GRC processes.
1: Ad Hoc/Unaware — Department-Level Maturity
Characteristics of this GRC stage are:
Organizations in the Ad Hoc/Unaware GRC stage answer many of the following questions affirmatively:
2: Fragmented — Department Level Maturity
Characteristics of the Fragmented GRC stage are:
Organizations in the Integrated GRC stage answer many of the following questions affirmatively:
3: Integrated — Department Level Maturity
Characteristics of the Integrated GRC stage are:
Organizations in the Integrated GRC stage answer many of the following questions affirmatively:
4: Aligned — Enterprise GRC Maturity
Characteristics of the Aligned GRC stage are:
Organizations in the Aligned GRC stage answer many of the following questions affirmatively:
5: Optimized — Enterprise GRC Maturity
Characteristics of the Optimized GRC stage are:
Organizations in the Optimized GRC stage answer many of the following questions affirmatively:
Come back next week to view the final post in this series: Getting to the Head of the Class: Advancing Your Organizations GRC Maturity
GRC Maturity: From Disorganized to Integrated Risk and Performance - Part IV
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Getting to the Head of the Class: Advancing Your Organizations GRC Maturity
Organizations with GRC processes siloed within departments operate at the Unaware, Fragmented, or Integrated stage. At these stages GRC may be effective within a silo, but lacks an enterprise perspective of risk and compliance and gains no efficiencies from shared processes. Different departments may be at different levels of maturity.
The Aligned and Optimized maturity levels represent maturity of organizations with an enterprise GRC strategy, focused on developing a common GRC process, information and technology architecture. These organizations report process effi
Considerations for Moving From Fragmented to Integrated
Departments at the Fragmented stage have siloed approaches to risk and compliance at the department level. This means no integration or sharing of risk and compliance information, processes or technology.
To move from Fragmented to Integrated requires the department reduce manual data integration and improve overall visibility into risk exposure. Organizations should consider defining GRC process and information architecture at the department level and implement technology to manage multiple risk and compliance initiatives cohesively.
Considerations for Moving From Integrated to Aligned
Departments at the Integrated maturity stage are in a good place to lead the organization in an integrated GRC strategy to the Aligned stage. They have a strategic approach to GRC at the department level, supported by mature GRC processes that can be extended to other departments. These organizations have a shared-services approach to GRC to deliver common processes and integrated information.
To move from the Integrated to the Aligned stage requires a common risk catalog that shows the relationship of risks across the business and risk ownership. The purpose is to enable the business to make risk-informed decisions. Orga
Considerations for Moving From Aligned to Optimized
To difference between the Aligned to Optimized stage is primarily one of context. At the Aligned stage the orga
Achieving the Optimized stage requires GRC expectations set as part of the annual strategic planning processes. The organization has extensive measurement and monitoring of GRC in the context of business strategy, performance and objectives. There is shared information and technology between risk, control and compliance management as well as decision support, optimization and business intelligence. The organization has integrated risk and finance data to drive performance and maximize value creation.
Fundamental Steps to Establishing Your GRC StrategyTo achieve the benefits other organizations have seen from a GRC strategic plan and common approach, Corporate Inte
How to make the right GRC software selection?
Erwin Boeren 270002C43V email@example.com | | Tags:  compliance enterprise egrc iii management grc solvency software audit selection openpages risk tooling governance ii basel and | 0 Comments | 3,149 Visits
Governance, Risk and Compliance software selection process
A client of mine recently asked me about what I have seen as the most effective way to run a selection process. Now I know this may seems a conflict of interest, a GRC solution vendor writing on the GRC software selection process and the need for a GRC platform. Still I think I can give you some dos and donts on a GRC software selection process since I have been there many times.
Let's start with the need for a GRC software platform. Why do you need such?
Of course investing in a solution needs a compelling event. Either the cost for risk management and compliance becomes very high, or the process takes too long to be responsive to stakeholders or the 'in control' statement cannot be guaranteed any longer. Also external regulators can advise you to implement software.
Before you start thinking about a GRC platform carefully review the risk and compliance maturity level of your organization and the scope of the problem. This will help you make the judgment between 2 approaches. First approach is what we call 'point solution', second approach is 'enterprise solution'.
The first approach, Point Solution, is best when the compelling event is there but the scope is limited to one area. On a single point of your GRC activities you have a pain that must be resolved in a fairly short term. In this case you can search for specific capabilities with specific knowledge. You can make a selection of vendors that operate in the area where you have the pain and select the partner that understands your area. Of course you might want to consider your ambition on the long term. If your long term ambition is Enterprise wide GRC integration you might still look at enterprise vendors and use the specific area as a 'pilot' for further extension.
The second approach, Enterprise Solution, is best when the compelling event is on the integration of Governance, Risk and Compliance. The term risk and control convergence often comes up here. This approach requires a lot more work than the point solution and may have cultural impact. You might consider a second party to help you go through this project. A second party (consulting firm) can help you in making critical decisions and in reviewing your current (silo based) approach to GRC. They can keep the holistic view for you. Every silo needs to be reviewed and mapped to the enterprise approach. This will not come without discussions and sacrifices!
So the need is there, now how to make your selection?
In the first point solution approach there are just two considerations, short term or long term? In case of the short term do NOT select an enterprise vendor and go for the right point solution. Advantages are lower cost and shorter implementation time. Second consideration, long term, means a selection between enterprise GRC software vendors and consider the first phase as a pilot for the enterprise approach. Still you might want to involve a consulting firm with specific knowledge.
In the second enterprise approach you will go for an enterprise vendor. This is where you want to be careful in setting up your selection. I personally have seen many of these selection processes since I have been in such selections. And this is where I want to give you some guidance to save you a lot of time and money.
First do NOT expect the enterprise vendors to differentiate on functionality. The GRC software market has made an evolution in the last 10 years that have resulted in a fairly high mature software market. So a 'beauty contest' is a waste of money and resources. Outcome will be equal for all vendors and you will be stuck between your user community and the vendors in the process. You might get questions from your management team why you spend so much time and resources without any outcome.
Secondly involve your end users in the selection process early, but do not expect 20 people working in silos to come to one single conclusion. Again you will end up in a long discussion with no outcome. Have a small group of people (3 preferably) to make the selection.
Thirdly make your selection criteria known upfront and make them measurable. Also involve the vendors in the process and be open to them. If you are open and honest you will get transparent, open and honest answers. If you hide, vendors will hide! Criteria should be based on experience in your market, understanding of your organization, size and financial stability, ability to deliver in time and within budget, alignment of implementation approach to your implementation methodology and the cultural fit.
Again this may look preaching to the choir but I hope I just saved you time and money that you can invest in your implementation.
Blog post by Erwin Boeren, Senior Governance, Risk & Compliance specialist IBM
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IBM Enhances Risk-Aware Decision Making & Policy Management with New OpenPages Platform Release
Timothy Powers 270003F3FN email@example.com | | Tags:  frank-dodd risk grc business-analytics cognos fraud openpages compliance performance-management analytics governance risk-analytics | 0 Comments | 3,624 Visits
By Gordon Burnes, Worldwide Marketing, IBM Risk Analytics
A key theme at Vision 2012, IBM's three-day user conference for Finance and Risk professionals, is how organizations can leverage enterprise risk information to make better decisions while balancing the demands for risk oversight and regulatory compliance.
The current complex and dynamic regulatory environment is a particular challenge for risk and compliance directors. For instance, while organizations covered by Dodd-Frank must respond to current regulatory reporting requirements, less than a third of the associated rule-making has been finished.
So, risk and compliance professionals must put in place an approach to meet regulatory requirements that can easily adapt over time as regulations evolve, and this approach includes the capability to adapt internal policies to keep pace with the evolving regulatory environment.
During the Risk Analytics Keynote, IBM announced general availability of IBM OpenPages GRC Platform 6.1.
This new solution enhances the ability to make risk-aware business decisions, enables companies to react more quickly to regulatory changes through better policy management, and decreases costs and complexity of compliance.
Leveraging the IBM Cognos business intelligence platform, OpenPages 6.1 delivers interactive reports and dashboards that allow business managers to turn that risk information into insight and insight into better business outcomes.
The new release includes several important enhancements:
· Manages lifecycle of policies from creation, review, approval, attestation, and exception management
· Standardizes policy templates and approval processes across the business
· Allows policies to be structured in a standardized way but presented in narrative form (for editing and review, etc) the way people are used to working with policies
· Formalizes process for employee awareness and training and monitoring of campaigns
· Maps policies to regulatory library and control framework to increase visibility into policy coverage & adherence and make it easier to update policies as regulations change
· Enhanced reporting user interface and framework that empowers business users to explore and analyze risk data using interactive dashboards and reporting for better decision making
In summary, IBM OpenPages 6.1:
· Enables companies to react more quickly to regulatory changes through better policy management
· Enhances the ability to make risk-aware business decisions through easier access to risk and compliance information
· Decreases the cost and complexity of compliance with out-of-the-box configurations for policy management.
For more information:
· Read the Vision 2012 Day One Recap
· Read the blog post from Michael Zerbs, VP of IBM Risk Analytics, "Managing Risk: A Global Challenge that Must be Confronted"
· Download the whitepaper, "Managing Regulatory Change - Learn how Dodd-Frank Impacts Regulatory Compliance"
· Follow @IBMRisk & @IBMCognos on Twitter and/or search #Vision12
For more information:
· Read the Vision 2012 Day One Recap
· Read the blog post from Michael Zerbs, VP of IBM Risk Analytics, "Managing Risk: A Global Challenge that Must be Confronted"
· Download the whitepaper, "Managing Regulatory Change - Learn how Dodd-Frank Impacts Regulatory Compliance"
· Follow @IBMRisk & @IBMCognos on Twitter and/or search #Vision12
IBM Watson found a job as a risk expert!
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IBM Watson found a job as a risk expert!
IBM Watson goes to work in financial services as a risk expert. One of the largest Financial Services institutes and IBM now partner to enhance and simplify the consumer banking experience with faster, more accurate decisions, better risk assessment, and more targeted customer offers.
IBM Watson is transforming expectations for how technology can help individuals live and work in better ways. Its ability to make sense of vast quantities of unstructured information, communicate in natural human language, learn from experience, and offer confidence weighted responses is already a game changer in healthcare. Focusing these capabilities on financial services brings new possibilities for higher service levels to an expanded set of users.
For those who do
not know IBM Watson, Watson is an artificial intelligence computer system
capable of answering questions posed in natural language, developed in IBM's
DeepQA project. As a test of its abilities, Watson competed on the quiz show
Jeopardy!, in the show's only huma
Now what will that bring to our Financial Service clients? Potentially as an assistant to client service professionals to help deliver evidence-based recommendations across multiple areas of the bank, including: credit card; private banking; wealth management; and call centers. Since IBM Watson can think faster than any human being it is able to make cross checks, prevent fraud, determine risk, etc. It is able to analyze data such as client information, online news reports, blogs, Twitter feeds, analyst reports, regulations, credit ratings, and government securities filings which can help to suggest options targeted to a consumers' individual circumstances.
Blog post by Erwin Boeren
Senior Governance, Risk & Compliance specialist IBM
Impact of Big Data, Cloud, Mobile and Regulatory Pressure on your IT Risk and Governance Model
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Impact of Big Data, Cloud, Mobile
and Regulatory Pressure on your IT Risk and Governance Model.
This 30% decrease was established by optimizing and
automating the risk process, end users are now able to complete the whole risk
cycle in one platform with risk identification, risk assessment, risk
management, risk reporting (real time!) and risk monitoring.
2. Customer decreased their manual IT control test
effort with 140 hours per week only for Segregation of Duties and access
management. This was done by automating control tests.
Blog post by Erwin Boeren
Senior Governance, Risk & Compliance specialist IBM Europe
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Independent researchers positive on IBM's approach to Risk Management
Erwin Boeren 270002C43V firstname.lastname@example.com | | Tags:  openpages research grc algorithmics enterprise ibm management risk | 1 Comments | 2,800 Visits
In the last 2 months three independent researchers have given their opinion on IBM's approach to risk management. All 3 are very positive towards the areas of Innovation, Market Presence, Functionality and Enterprise GRC capabilities.
Forrester in the Forresterwave EGRC 2011: The OpenPages platform remains one of the most consistently strong enterprise GRC platforms on the market today. The company's vision is to enable senior management to make strategic risk and reward decisions to improve business performance and reduce exposure to risks and loss on investments. The OpenPages platform's GRC management and analytics features are just one example of where this mission will play out."
Gartner in its September update: The OpenPages platform has solid capabilities in all the core functions, has above-average support for ERM and ORM, and is rated very high on financial reporting integrity compliance. It continues to execute consistently on a well-planned road map."
Chartis published its Risk Top 100 last November with IBM ranked the No.1 vendor in the area of Risk Management. With special rewards for Functionality, Market Presence, Innovation, Fund & Asset Management, Market Risk, Operational Risk and Enterprise GRC.
In the Chartis RiskTech 100 IBM was measured for the first time along the qualitative and quantitative risk capabilities (read the acquisitions of OpenPages and Algorithmics). In the Gartner and Forrester publications the latest Algorithmics acquisition was not taken into account.
Interesting enough researchers praise IBM for immediately adding value to its acquisitions. One year ago IBM was ranked number 7 in the RiskTech 100 and now IBM is on top of the list. Not because the individual products are that good but because the minimal overlap and immediate integrations create added value for customers.
Adding Risk to the area of Business Analytics (Business Analytics is one of the 4 key initiatives of IBM towards 2015, driven by our new CEO Gini Rometty) is a great step into Smarter Risk. Capabilities like predictive intelligence, driver based planning, regulatory reporting, scenario testing, forecasting, dashboarding, scorecarding, reporting and analysis will give a great boost if you apply this to risk. This is where the convergence of performance management and risk management create great value for our customers.>
Blog post from Erwin Boeren, Governance Risk & Compliance Leader IBM Europe
Looking back at a great IBM Vision 2012, Orlando FL
Erwin Boeren 270002C43V firstname.lastname@example.com | | Tags:  risk 2012 openpages grc governance basel solvency ibm vision | 0 Comments | 3,712 Visits
Looking back at a great Vision 2012,
Vision 2012 was a great event with many customers speaking, partners and market analysts.
Customer Advisory Board
The IBM Customer Advisory Board came together in Monday, the day before the event officially kicked off to discuss the IBM Integrated Risk roadmap and to prioritize future development initiatives.
Keynotes were presented by Les Rechan (General Manager IBM Business Analytics), Mark Loughridge (CFO IBM) and Alison Levine.
Les opened with an energy level high as always! Mark gave a great insight in the financial transformation IBM has gone through and the road ahead. Alison delivered a key note where the whole room hung on her every word. Astonishing how Alison can present and what an inspiring lady she is.
this is available in recordings on : http
OpenPages version 6.1 released
At the risk keynote on day 1 by Patrick O'brien and Gordon Burnes the new version 6.1 of OpenPages was released. New features can be found on the IBM OpenPages 6.1 landing page :
A new leader for the IBM Risk Analytics pillar
Michael Zerbs has been appointed as the new leader to run the IBM Risk Analytics organization. Michael was the President and COO of Algorithmics. He is a recognized expert in risk management for market and credit risk, and has an in-depth understanding of the key risk management challenges that the financial industry faces today. He has authored several papers on pricing models and risk management and is a co-author of Mark-to-Future: A Framework for Measuring Risk and Rewad.
Market Analysts impressed by IBM Risk Portfolio
analysts could be found in
Operational risk is still strong as ever but Policy & Compliance management, IT Risk & Governance and Audit capabilities have grown to such maturity level that IBM is top in Risk Analytics.
Customers are expanding on their GRC Environment
Clients speaking at the 2 main event days were all expanding their platform to multi discipline risk. Especially risk convergence, standardization, enterprise risk management, IT Risk & Compliance and Fraud & Financial Crimes were topics that came across many times.
IBM implemented OpenPages
IBM has implemented OpenPages herself, and demonstrated that at day 2. Deborah Dunagan, IBM Transformation Executive demonstrated how IBM reduced her risk cycle times with 30% using IBM OpenPages!
With all this excitement we are looking forward to another great year and client success in Risk Analytics.
Blog post by Erwin Boeren
Senior Governance, Risk & Compliance specialist IBM
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Not Going to IBM Vision 2012? Better "Think Twice."
Timothy Powers 270003F3FN email@example.com | | Tags:  xbrl predictive-analytics governance decision-management risk grc business-analytics performance-management fraud compliance openpages clarity cognos analytics | 0 Comments | 4,290 Visits
Do you really understand the reasons you make decisions?
Sometimes the mind wants to unconsciously push us into a certain decision when there's a better way to think about it.
That's the premise of the book, Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition, written by Michael Mauboussin, Chief Investment Strategist at Legg Mason Capital Management and a keynote speaker at IBM's upcoming Vision 2012 conference in Orlando, May 14-17.
Vision is IBM's global conference for finance and risk professionals to help improve planning, budgeting and forecasting, identify and mitigate risk, and meet the demanding requirements of XBRL, IFRS, Basel II and Solvency II with greater confidence.
I talked to Mauboussin about his book, making data-driven decisions, some common pitfalls as decision makers, and his upcoming talk at Vision.
"What's very exciting is that in the last half dozen years, we've had a real influx of data, and we're now just learning how to tap that data for the benefit of better decision making," said Mauboussin. "Now we can create a better intersection between value creation and making decisions."
The problem however, according to Mauboussin, is that we still have the same cognitive makeup and the propensity to make common mistakes.
"We often think about our own decision making as being objective and fact based and rationale. And we tend to underestimate systematically how important the social context is for our decision making," said Mauboussin.
To illustrate this point he told an interesting story from his book.
Researchers went into the wine section of a supermarket and set up French and German wines next to each other that were roughly matched in price and quality. Over a two week period they alternated playing distinctively French and distinctively German music to see if it would have any influence on purchase decisions.
Surprisingly, they found when French music played people bought French wine 77 percent of the time, and German wine 73 percent of the time when German music played. When asked if music affected their selections, the consumers unanimously said no.
"This basic experiment can be extrapolated to a lot of organizational settings where we think of ourselves as trying to be conscious and mindful as we make decisions. But indeed what is going on around us can be deeply influential to our decisions," said Mauboussin.
So what do we do?
According to Mauboussin, integrate more data into quality decisions. However, there is still a tension between the intuitive, go by the seat of the pants experience group versus the analytically-minded group.
"Either extreme is not going to work but a blend between the two is right way," said Mauboussin.
Read the rest of the interview with Michael Mauboussin on the Business Analytics Blog here.
For more information:
· Register here for the upcoming Vision 2012 conference
· Download the Vision conference guide for background on keynotes, elective sessions, demos & workshops
· Read a previous blog post on minimizing risk and improving performance