The book 60 Minute Operational Risk Management is a reference guide for leaders who want a practical framework for recognizing and responding to risk. It breaks down complicated, abstract concepts in easy-to-understand and visual concepts.

What I Liked

Discussions about risk management often become really boring. In this book, Mr. Lancaster presents complex ideas in simple terms.

For example, every chapter has a brief overview of risk management using the Basel II, which is a set of risk standards for the banking industry. He also provides several original concepts which I found really helpful.

I like the simplicity of this book. Although it’s designed to be read in just 60 minutes, it took me considerably longer because I wanted to fully digest each chapter. I liked the use of visuals. Sometimes, risk concepts can get very confusing and abstract if you don’t connect them to something tangible.

I also thought Mr. Lancaster did a great job of giving exactly what was promised. It’s a very condensed book, with just 122 pages. It seems to have been primarily designed as an e-book, so some of the formatting is a bit distracting; but it still works in printed form.

The author provides a simple scoring instrument and a list of which items to include in a risk assessment, internal audit, mitigation process, and risk plan. He defines the difference between leading and lagging risks, and what to include in a risk policy. I found those very helpful.

What I Didn’t Like

As I mentioned, this book seems to have been written as an e-book, so the text is a little clunky. There are some spelling and grammatical errors that are distracting. But those are minor compared to the depth of the topic in such a brief book.

Who Should Read It

• Anyone in a leadership position who is interested in developing a structured approach to managing risk and making risk intelligent decisions.
• Anyone who is curious about new ways of looking at risk evaluation and risk management tools.

I highly recommend this as a reference guide on a topic that is normally quite boring. If you prefer e-books, this is a quick read (unless, like me, you like reference books you can hold in your hand).

Order this book on Amazon.

Mr. Lancaster’s website: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/stewartlancaster

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