The Risktory Podcast

Coming up on this week’s episode, disrupting is all fun and games. Until such time as you become the disrupted.

As we see with the rise. And fall. Of Compaq computers.

Compaq - the brainchild of three friends from Houston, Texas – disrupted the computer hardware market by, initially, boldly playing in IBM’s slipstream. And subsequently, transforming and mastering what was, at the time, the burgeoning value chain that was computer hardware manufacturing. Creating for itself multiple competitive advantages.

And then, Compaq became the disrupted. Its momentum had the kibosh put it. It’s competitive advantages – and there were a few - eroded. To the point that we now ask today, whatever happened to Compaq.

On this week’s episode of the Risktory Podcast, we find out. Tip: it’s exactly what you think happened.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written, hosted and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

All rights reserved.

Bibliography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq
https://www.pcguide.com/news/what-happended-to-compaq/
https://dfarq.homeip.net/why-did-compaq-fail/
https://www.chron.com/news/article/Compaq-timeline-2047450.php

You’ve heard me talk all year about the agnostic nature of risk management, as a discipline. As recently as three weeks ago, in an episode exploring the 1986 Insider Trading Scandal, I talked at some length about how our discipline. As a method of navigating the unknown. It doesn’t have a moral compass.

It can be used for the purposes of good. And for the purposes of the not so good.

Enter John McAfee. The controversial and problematic creator of McAfee Anti-Virus Software, who – just last week – passed away while awaiting extradition from Spain to the US to face charges of fraud and money laundering.

McAfee created a whole industry rooted and nested, in the fear of the unknown. He saw opportunity in threat, expertly wielding our discipline to make himself a multi-millionaire.

On this week’s episode, I explore how McAfee did it.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written, hosted and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

All rights reserved.

Bibliography
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/john-mcafees-tumultuous-life-in-tech-everything-you-need-to-know/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee
https://nypost.com/2021/06/26/sex-drugs-guns-wild-life-and-death-of-tech-king-john-mcafee/
https://www.coinbureau.com/analysis/john-mcafee-story/
https://noti.group/how-john-mcafee-went-from-pioneering-cyber-security-to-running-from-the-law-before-suicide/

Coming up on today’s Masters of the Risk Universe, a woman whose name you may not have ever heard of. But a woman whose invention and innovation, a large majority of you will have used at some point.

Melitta Bentz – the inventor of the paper coffee filter. Melitta Bentz - the creator of a coffee empire that, to this day, still exists. And Melitta Bentz – a woman whose innovative workplace policies set the tone for the benefits we take for granted today.

There is nothing more inspiring than an everyday risk master. Someone who saw a problem. Spotted the gap. Innovated the gap. Throttled the opportunity that followed. And didn’t stop, even when she had ‘made it’.

Stories like that of Melitta Bentz are the stories that ought to inspire everyone that, they too, can be risk masters.

On today’s episode, the incredible story of innovator and disruptor, Melitta Bentz.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written, hosted and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

All rights reserved.

Bibliography
https://www.melitta.com/melitta_journey_through_time_en.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melitta_Bentz
https://www.seriouseats.com/coffee-history-melitta-bentz-inventor-of-the-paper-filter
http://www.edubilla.com/inventor/melitta-bentz/
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/who-invented-the-coffee-maker.html
https://www.company-histories.com/Melitta-Unternehmensgruppe-Bentz-KG-Company-History.html

Coming up today, let’s call this week’s episode a Viewers Choice episode, given so many of you reached out to me to cover it. This week, I will make sense of the JBS Holdings Hack.

I’ve always said that the 2016 Crash Override hack. Which, for those not familiar, was the successful infiltration, and shut down, of Kiev’s electrical grid in the dead of a frigid Ukranian winter. I’ve always said that the 2016 Crash Override hack. It wasn’t the main event. It was a preview of what was to come.

What we are seeing with the hacks of both the Colonial Pipeline and JBS Holdings is a holus bolus full frontal attack on critical infrastructure globally, with the aim of: a) making hackers money; and b) demonstrating the fragility, or perhaps more accurately, the vulnerability, of critical infrastructure.

This is Fight Club, except it’s not fiction.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written, hosted and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

All rights reserved.

Bibliography
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/02/business/beef-hack-jbs/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/09/business/jbs-cyberattack-11-million/index.html
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jbs-paid-11-million-ransom-004139206.html
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/jbs-paid-hackers-11-million-after-hack-closed-plants
https://www.npr.org/2021/06/03/1002819883/revil-a-notorious-ransomware-gang-was-behind-jbs-cyberattack-the-fbi-says
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-31/meat-is-latest-cyber-victim-as-hackers-hit-top-supplier-jbs
https://jbsfoodsgroup.com/articles/jbs-usa-and-pilgrim-s-announce-resolution-of-cyberattack

Something I’ve said time and time again on the podcast, is that risk management – as a discipline – it’s agnostic.

As a discipline which – at its core – is all about how we entreat with the unknown – both with opportunity and/or threat in mind. Risk management doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t have a moral compass. Anyone can make use of it. For the purposes of good. And for the purposes of the not so good.

And that’s where Ivan Boesky and the 1986 Insider Trading Scandal comes in. Ivan exploited the opportunity side of the risk coin, as a way to make money. And while – as you will find out in this episode – Ivan paid an incredibly heavy price for his opportunity chasing.

The story of Ivan Boesky is a story of our discipline – our tools, our techniques, our capabilities – being used in ways perhaps not intended.

But nevertheless, reflective of risk management being a game anyone can play.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written, hosted and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

All rights reserved.

Bibliography
https://www.businessinsider.com/meet-ivan-boesky-the-infamous-wall-streeter-who-inspired-gordon-gecko-2012-7
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/19/business/boesky-sentenced-to-3-years-in-jail-in-insider-scandal.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/28/who-is-ivan-boesky.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Boesky
https://sites.psu.edu/callmevij/2018/10/25/the-great-insider-trading-scam-of-1986/

Inventor and Futurist - Ray Kurzweil – a Risktory Podcast favorite – speaks of the Law of Accelerating Returns. Which is the idea that, in a non-technology driven world, change was largely linear. Left to Right. Top to Bottom. Consecutive.

According to the Law of Accelerating Returns, in a technology driven world – such as the one we now live in – change is both concurrent and exponential. Every advance feeds on the previous advance, not only hastening the rate of change, but also shortening the lifespan of an advance before it’s superseded.

It’s not always easy to find real life examples of the Law of Accelerating Returns, outside of the medical world, which is the environment within which Kurzweil formulated the Law. But Vine – the short-form social media platform – whose original format lasted just three years - is a perfect example of the Law in action. Of VINE coming into existence because of exponential change, and churning out, for the same reason.

On this week’s Whatever Happened To episode, I look at the rise – and fall – of Vine. And I explore why – in a world of rapid change and where our abilities to entreat with the unknown will be challenged - why we all need to understand, and prepare to adapt for, the Law of Accelerating Returns.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written, hosted and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

All rights reserved.

Bibliography
https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/vine-app-timeline
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vine_(service)
https://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns

On this week’s episode, a much requested Make It Make Sense: the Colonial Pipeline crisis.

On May 7 2021, the Colonial Pipeline, a fuel pipeline operating out of Houston, Texas, and serving 45% of the US east coast, was shut down, due to hackers infiltrating its systems and impacting equipment critical to the operation of the pipeline.

The resultant impacts – everything from fuel shortages to flight disruptions to increased hacking activity (industry agnostic) – were a stark reminder of the criticality of infrastructure in our day to day lives. And how quickly we fall apart when infrastructure is compromised.

The Colonial Pipeline crisis is a story where all the warnings signs were there, and yet the risk still manifested. On today’s episode, I’ll take you through what happened. The impacts. How it was resolved. And I will bring you the lessons learned. Lessons not just for our organizations, but lessons for us as humans.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written, hosted and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

All rights reserved.

Related Episode
Crash Override - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/17202449

Guiding Principles for Cyber Risk Governance
DCRO -https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j5bT3GTNdOwwKfJf6cVzXqPijeHrhYdI/view

Bibliography
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/darkside-hackers-focus-after-toshiba-attack-2021-05-14/
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/05/a-closer-look-at-the-darkside-ransomware-gang/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DarkSide_(hacking_group)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Pipeline_cyberattack
https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-breaches-and-attacks/ransomware/colonial-pipeline-investigation/
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/shortage-delivery-drivers-means-gas-station-pumps-could-run-dry-n1265673
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/may/19/colonial-pipeline-ceo-admits-paid-ransom-hackers/

When someone asks me my favorite movie, I always say: I have three. Stanley Kubrik’s, The Shining. Rob Reiner’s, This is Spinal Tap and David Lynch’s directorial debut, Eraserhead.

David Lynch is a curious cat. An accidental disruptor. A master of actively, consciously stepping into the void without fear or trepidation. There is something to be said about someone who sees the herd, knows they have the capacity to outrun the herd if they wanted to, but still chooses their own unique creative path.

David Lynch’s life is a perpetual leaping off the cliff into the unknown, not knowing where he’ll land, but recognizing that the not knowing is what makes for a fun, and life-changing, journey.

On today’s episode of the Risktory Podcast, the story of the accidental disruptor, David Lynch.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written, hosted and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

All rights reserved.

Bibligraphy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lynch
https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Lynch-American-director-and-screenwriter
http://www.artnet.com/artists/david-lynch/

In a world that seems all so negative and chaotic, a good news story this week. A story that exemplifies the natural inclination of our species to spot the gap, innovate the gap, and change the world.

The Door Dash Start Up Story.

The Door Dash Start Up Story will feel familiar to you. It’s a story of beautiful disruption. Of opportunity chasing. Or discipline, resilience and commitment to goal.

And a story of making the impossible, the unknown, a beautiful reality.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written, hosted and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

All rights reserved.

Related Episodes
AirBnb - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/23070328
Alibaba - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/44372612
Amazon - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/19273306

Bibligraphy
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/doordash
https://medium.com/@DoorDash/the-doordash-story-b370c2bb1e5f
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DoorDash#cite_note-23
https://nextbigwhat.com/doordash-story/

On today’s episode, I look at the rise and fall of Payless Shoes. At one point, Payless Shoes was the US’ largest and most successful family owned business. Bigger than Walmart and the Walton Family. Think about that for a minute.

And then, its fortunes dwindled. The disruptor became the disrupted. And the disrupted was unable to sustain itself.

On this week’s episode, let’s talk about how Payless disrupted the shoe market. Innovated its way to what seemed to be an unassailable competitive advantage. And then, how its decades of market dominance, all fell apart in a matter of years.

The story of Payless’ collapse. It’s nothing new. In many ways, it is proof that we don’t always learn from the past, which dooms us to a repeat performance in the future.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written, hosted and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

All rights reserved.

Related Episode
https://www.spreaker.com/user/jacintheagalpin/20-05-04-whatever-happened-to-toys-r-us

Bibligraphy
https://moneyinc.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-payless-shoesource/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payless_(footwear_retailer)
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/19/payless-shoesource-files-for-bankruptcy-closes-its-2500-us-stores.html
https://www.smartcompany.com.au/finance/payless-shoes-collapses-voluntary-administration/
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-payless-shoesource-2019-6?op=1#in-2019-the-discount-show-retailer-filed-for-bankruptcy-again-and-announced-its-plan-to-close-all-us-stores-19