administration. The greatest risk is that those unfamiliar with government policy, process and regulation will drive out all the career professionals who currently make it run. Who and how will our government continue to operate with novices in charge?
PR4P: What advice would you give to small business owners who want to mitigate risk?
Annie Searle: First, document your expectations clearly for your employees through an employee guide or code of conduct. Carefully hire people for the jobs you advertise to avoid surprises and liability issues later. Next, ensure that you are operating with state of the art technology, and that someone is responsible for ensuring that all security or operating system updates are protecting your systems. There’s a much longer list of action items in Advice From A Risk Detective for owners of all businesses that ranges from how to avoid violence or harassment in the workplace to training for disaster recovery.
PR4P: What do you think are the three greatest threats in the world today?
Annie Searle: Because of the volatility of the situation, I would have to say the largest threat is the incoming administration. Ad hoc tweeting from a thin skin is certainly not the mark of any kind of leader, much less the incoming president. The next would be social media platforms with their ability to amplify false stories and fake news, with the access provided to groups like ISIS to recruit new converts, or for school age children to bully one another unmercifully. The third is a function of the first two, the possibility of all out nuclear buildups, over-the-top confrontations that escalate past diplomatic solutions, the targeting and profiling of diverse groups, the failure of the rule of law to protect all its citizens.
PR4P: You’ve had a long career, what do you consider your greatest accomplishments?
Annie Searle: My career is by no means over, so I don’t think that way. I’ve always wanted to be right in the center of things, to change the world, to make an impact. I feel like I have a real home on the faculty of the UW Information School, where I now teach full time, and where one of its maxims is “Information changes lives.” I designed two risk management courses and started teaching them in 2012. Now I also teach a course in ethics, policy and law in information management; another on the foundations of information management; and still another on consulting practices. I’m honored to be part of a major research university that has such a large commitment to inclusion, equity and social good.
ASA is set up to accommodate the regular publication of a newsletter for risk professionals from around the world, with new research notes forthcoming every month that are then gathered in volumes of 25-30 research notes at a time, in a series called Reflections on Risk. To date, we’ve published three volumes.