Monthly Newsletter – August 2020
Hello All,
Thank you for your continued support of GOAT and welcome to the new people on this list. We are a small risk software startup determined to do things a bit differently where it makes sense to do so. We are active on social media platforms, especially LinkedIn and once a month we provide a roundup of the content we’ve shared or offline activities we’ve been part of. It’s a longer read with links to several recent articles, so please get a cuppa tea or coffee before tucking in.
R*sk happens! Insights from risk maturity survey
This post came off the back of an audience I had with the Risk Leadership Network, Thanks to the RLN team Will Saunders, Tim Whitehouse and Kin Ly who have set out to create an amazing community of risk people. I shared insights from the 3 year risk maturity benchmark study that ultimately inspired the launch of GOAT. The benchmark study from 2016-2018 gave me access to senior business and risk leaders from over 150 organisations where they opened up about the good, bad and ugly of their risk management programmes. The controversial title is off a data point that nearly half the respondents experienced a serious risk event in the last 5 years, if we asked that question today, we’d probably get 100%.
The Why, What and How of ERM Software: An Essential Buyers Guide
This article by Carol Williams is exactly the piece I have wanted to write for a while now. Just try typing “Risk Management Software” into Google and look at the comparison website Capterra which should be the first non-paid listing. I spent my career as an ERM practitioner and while leading a 3-year risk maturity benchmark, have spoken with hundreds of risk and business leaders. I heard first hand their frustrations with researching, buying, using, embedding, and cancelling risk software. I heard some nightmare scenarios of being locked into long expensive contracts but business users refusing to use the system. The reason I never got around to writing the piece is because my knowledge of the customer and user perspective is what compelled me to launch GOAT. Ironically, now that I am a real expert in this space, my views are perceived as no longer impartial and I am now part of the market. We’re pleased GOAT is mentioned in this article as our whole existence is to challenge the status quo by offering something different.
+7000 LinkedIn views!
I’m still trying to learn about social media and of course there is a proprietary algorithm that decides whether your content is worth reading. We made a simple post suggesting its probably time to start planning for Q3 updates with Risk Committees and that GOAT can help make this process very easy so Risk Managers can focus on the business and stakeholder relationships instead of reporting. This simple post saw our highest ever views, engagement and shares. Thanks everyone that helped spread the word.
GOAT Webinar
This month Socrates Mhlanga and I hosted our first webinar and received fantastic attendance, engagement and feedback. This session was inspired off the back of one of my own coaches suggesting that as great as GOAT is as a product, we have a risk that clients don’t realise the benefits and therefore cancel or leave negative reviews because they lack the risk expertise, the information isn’t useful or accurate or they simply aren’t using it right. So whilst I am constantly posting content, practical advice, the session was an opportunity to share my experiences on how to disrupt the status quo in the risk profession and how to transform risk management into a critical CEO tool. We are doing another session on the 31st and we have had so many requests to accommodate Australia/Asia timezones and separately in the Americas so we will be planning two more events in September.
How can you increase your emotional intelligence?
The image gives me the creeps but I shared this article by John R. Stoker because it resonated with me and I can recall many moments in my career where I probably could have handled a bit better. Risk managers are often punching above our weights with senior stakeholders, caught in the politics of the organisation or need to deliver tough messages. Stoker offers 7 practical tips that you can use to manage your own emotions that help you navigate the most difficult situations:
- Identify your emotions
- Surface your thinking
- Identify your values
- Ask questions
- Breathe deliberately
- Change your movements
- Change your words
GOAT in mainstream media
We were also extremely excited about having GOAT advertised on several mainstream print and online media channels including the Metro, Daily Mail and Independent. Our little startup brand is getting our name out there. Whilst this is great for awareness and brought some extra traffic over a few days, we are most reliant on word of mouth of those who believe in or are inspired by our cause. Please mention GOAT to other industry colleagues that you think can benefit from our simple practical and low cost risk software and ideas around embedding risk management, bringing data into the risk process and empathising with c-suite to give them information that helps run the business.
Stay connected and stay in touch
Scale risk with confidence