“Every great story on the planet happened when someone decided not to give up, but kept going no matter what.” –Spryte Loriano
So what’s your story?
📷 Don Moir
In this first part series, I will be interviewing all those people who are an inspiration to me, so it is with pleasure to introduce my very first guest , Don Moir.
Don, a British Expat with roots from Edinburgh (Home also to myself for many years now) living the fabulous life down under (Aussie). With over 20 years’ experience in the IT industry and a knack for process improvements and providing best practices on (my favourite subjects) Risk Compliance, Disaster Recovery and BCPs, Don’s consultancy provides excellent assistance and preparation for his product, home emergency planning. You will never be left in a panic about what to do. Enjoy and be Inspired. What was your first job?
Home delivery cream sales. Back in the days when lots of things were sold door to door. I’m pretty sure it was cream and yoghurt (exciting new product!) actually. Either way, it was traipsing round the houses selling little cartons of cream. First salaried job was as a precognition agent, a job that only exists in Scotland, working for a firm of defence solicitors interviewing witnesses and police before trial and before determining a plea. A very useful occupation that can save trial time, but a pretty depressing one dealing with victims of and witnesses to crime and those that have to deal with it all day every day. A real eye-opener.
Who's influenced your career most (and why)?
Not really sure. But one that springs to mind is a former boss of mine who introduced me to ITIL (IT service management framework) which led me to getting my Foundation Certificate back in 2001. That has been a massive influence on my career and everyday work life since. It’s pretty globally accepted as good practice now, though I wish he’d been able to afford to send me on all the courses to get to ‘expert’ level!
With IT becoming more and more key to businesses especially with security, data breaches and trends of social media, how important is it for IT and Risk Management to work together?
Not important. Essential. From a business perspective it’s hard to imagine anything could be more important these days. From my experience of an IT perspective, it is invariably not considered as much or as significantly as it should be.
What does Risk Culture look like?
The more you delve into risk management, the more you realise that it should be part of the core activities of just about every discipline. In fact, you realise that risk assessments underpin most of the decisions we make every day. Some are minor, routine decisions and don’t take great consideration but many significant decisions require a thorough risk assessment before determining what/how/when and so on.
Maybe it’s just my strange mind, but to me Risk Culture isn't something you would see but if it (risk management) was as omnipresent as it should be then what you would see are a lot more better made decisions and a lot fewer squandered opportunities.
Your consultancy helps assist in process improvement services, why is it important to have a home emergency planning process in place?
For the average person, what’s more valuable to you – your family and your home or your workplace? All manner of time and money have been spent, processes and procedures developed, all to protect us from harm in the workplace, and yet we, most of us, fail to adequately consider the risks at our homes. There is no shortage of staggering statistics regarding deaths from fires in the home, or homes ruined through flood or storm. This isn't insurance (which is obviously essential for a recovery phase), this is about reducing the impact or severity of a given risk or threat. The impact on you, your loved ones and your memories and possessions.
My Home Emergency Planning ‘product’ is not going to stop a bushfire coming through, or insure against it – in simple terms what it seeks to do is reduce the potential impact of risks by implementing controls – much is simple logical stuff, but stuff we neglect to do for ourselves. Stuff that we never quite find time to do until it’s too late, stuff that’s on the list of things to do….
What's the best piece of advice you could give someone?
Don’t let the bad guys win!
What's your all time favourite book (and why)?
Difficult one. There isn't just one, but Naomi Klein’s ‘The Shock Doctrine’ is right up there. Because it unveils the hideous pursuit of profit at any cost. At the risk of being excessive, other must reads are: ‘Lord of the Flies’ by WilliamGolding (exposing the bad sides of human nature), ‘Mornings in Jenin’ by SusanAbulhawa, and ‘Samarkand’ by Amin Maalouf (for me, a great example of the art of storytelling). Just as well you didn’t ask me about music, otherwise we’d be here all day :-)
What's your favourite quote or motto?
Again very difficult, but one I was so moved by just the other day that I posted it on facebook, is “A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty”. Asides from that, as a Scot, I’ve always loved ‘Nemo meimpune lacessit’.
Thank you very much Don. It has been a pleasure To find out more about Don’s consultancy visit : Re-view Consulting You may also connect with Don via : LinkedIn
Comments