hi, and welcome to Backup Central's ReSTOR all podcast.
W. Curtis Preston:I'm host w Curtis Preston, aka Mr.
W. Curtis Preston:Backup, and I have with me my floor laminate water damage consultant
W. Curtis Preston:Prasanna Malaiyandi, how's it going?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Oh no.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:What got water damage?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I didn't know I was a water damage expert now.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Oh, no.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:What happened, curtis?
W. Curtis Preston:call out to you.
W. Curtis Preston:You, you're all I have.
W. Curtis Preston:You're all I have, uh, no.
W. Curtis Preston:So, you know, as you may know, you know, obviously I, you know, I've
W. Curtis Preston:continued on with the project.
W. Curtis Preston:I've finished putting the, the, um, the luxury vinyl planks there in the kitchen.
W. Curtis Preston:And apparently there was a little water incident while I was gone.
W. Curtis Preston:Uh, my son-in-law, uh, is telling me there's water underneath
W. Curtis Preston:the brand new laid down panels.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, so I, I don't, I actually don't know what I'm going home to.
W. Curtis Preston:I'm a little,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Do you
Prasanna Malaiyandi:think, is it like in the spot of the dishwasher?
W. Curtis Preston:down again.
W. Curtis Preston:What's that?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Is it by the dishwasher?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:by the fridge.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah, it's by the dishwasher.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:And we shut off the, we shut off the water and stuff, but he says
W. Curtis Preston:that he feels water, like he can
Prasanna Malaiyandi:It's further down.
W. Curtis Preston:I don't know I don't know if he
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Uh,
W. Curtis Preston:what he is talking about, but I hope he doesn't know
W. Curtis Preston:what he is talking about, because otherwise I gotta pull up the, all
W. Curtis Preston:the flooring and then let everything dry and then put everything back down.
W. Curtis Preston:But everything's all cut so it's not, you know, I just gotta, Keep
W. Curtis Preston:it all in a row or whatever, but
Prasanna Malaiyandi:not the news you were hoping
Prasanna Malaiyandi:for
W. Curtis Preston:want, I wanted the kitchen to be done, right?
W. Curtis Preston:I, I finished the kitchen and then I went on this little trip, which by
W. Curtis Preston:the way, for those of you watching, well, for those of you listening, I
W. Curtis Preston:probably sound a little bit different.
W. Curtis Preston:I don't have my usual mic and those of you watching, uh, I look,
W. Curtis Preston:this is just a lame camera angle.
W. Curtis Preston:This is, you know, standard laptop on a desk.
W. Curtis Preston:This is not what anybody wants to.
W. Curtis Preston:Looking up my nostrils, but it is what it is.
W. Curtis Preston:I need to, uh, mention our standard disclaimer that persona and I
W. Curtis Preston:work for different companies.
W. Curtis Preston:I work for Druva, he works for Zoom.
W. Curtis Preston:And, uh, this is not an official podcast of either company.
W. Curtis Preston:The opinions that you hear are all ours and be sure to, uh, to.
W. Curtis Preston:To rate us at your favorite podcaster, give us all the
W. Curtis Preston:stars, give us the comments.
W. Curtis Preston:We love the comments, and we love even more to have a comment
W. Curtis Preston:from you, like reach out to us.
W. Curtis Preston:You can reach me at w Curtis Preston gmail or at WC Preston on what is still Twitter.
W. Curtis Preston:We'll see if Twitter is still around here in a few months.
W. Curtis Preston:But, uh, It is what it is, but, um, and, uh, if you'd like to join the
W. Curtis Preston:conversation, just, uh, reach out to me and we'll make that happen.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, so we're just gonna move forward with our guests today.
W. Curtis Preston:Who, you know, I started out, I was on his podcast, I'm happy to bring him on ours.
W. Curtis Preston:Uh, he's been in the risk management space for many years, which is
W. Curtis Preston:a real, like a, it's like an adjunct space, I think to, to ours.
W. Curtis Preston:He's the founder and CEO of Global Risk Community.
W. Curtis Preston:He's the host of the Risk Management Podcast.
W. Curtis Preston:Welcome to the podcast Boris.
W. Curtis Preston:Agranovich.
Boris Agranovich:Thank you, thank you.
Boris Agranovich:And for inviting me to this, uh, amazing podcast.
Boris Agranovich:You were actually few months back on my, uh, podcast the risk management show,
Boris Agranovich:and it was, uh, great, great experience.
Boris Agranovich:Uh, and now, uh, kinda audience, uh, uh, put a lot of, uh, Views
Boris Agranovich:on your podcast, uh, episode, so I
Boris Agranovich:am very happy.
Boris Agranovich:First of all, from my name and my accent, probably you will know that I was, uh,
Boris Agranovich:originally from, uh, this part of the world where now, uh, war is going on.
Boris Agranovich:So I was born in Ukraine now, and I studied in Russia.
Boris Agranovich:Came to Israel and now I live in the Netherlands.
Boris Agranovich:So , it's a little bit a mix.
Boris Agranovich:Uh, and I started in IT space and I, uh, then I moved more to, to banking.
Boris Agranovich:Banking, uh, like, uh, uh, insurance company, finance in banks.
Boris Agranovich:And I worked there on a kind of, Um, angle, like I put, uh, it angle into
Boris Agranovich:risk management business and, uh, because it banks were kinda in nineties
Boris Agranovich:and, uh, in beginning of 2000, have to be, to put some, a lot of it system
Boris Agranovich:to, uh, Upgrade the risk management.
Boris Agranovich:So I was a kind business analyst and then I became a risk manager.
Boris Agranovich:So in 20, I think 20, 20 10, I became, um, independent consultant.
Boris Agranovich:And when I had some pause in my assignments and wanted to, uh, kind
Boris Agranovich:of started to communicate with my peers all over the world, but it.
Boris Agranovich:Difficult with current tools and one best tool I found was LinkedIn, but
Boris Agranovich:it still kind provided a lot of noise.
Boris Agranovich:So I decided create to create a community for, uh, Like-minded people.
Boris Agranovich:So I created this global risk community.com, which I initially wanted
Boris Agranovich:to, uh, uh, to create as a kinda front office of my, uh, consultant business.
Boris Agranovich:But it kind of grew, grew, and now it has more than, Total, I
Boris Agranovich:think a hundred thousand people.
Boris Agranovich:So I, I'm concentrated mostly, uh, mainly on the growing of this site.
Boris Agranovich:Not on my consulting and risk management, but I'm on kind of, On the
Boris Agranovich:front, on the front page, as we say on the front page of both website and
Boris Agranovich:events, what happening in community.
Boris Agranovich:Although I'm not in the trenches as in the past, but I'm more kind in conversation
Boris Agranovich:like with you and other guys in the space.
Boris Agranovich:So I can tell you a little bit more about, uh, what happening in our industry.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:Uh, you know, before we talk about risk management, I, I'm just curious.
W. Curtis Preston:You know, I, I've, I've born and raised in, you know, the US right?
W. Curtis Preston:And here you pretty much need to speak one language, but you have lived in.
W. Curtis Preston:different, very different languages.
W. Curtis Preston:Right.
W. Curtis Preston:So you have, you have Russian, you have, um, you know, uh, Hebrew, you have, uh,
W. Curtis Preston:Dutch, and you mentioned you speak, so you speak a little bit of each of those,
Boris Agranovich:Yeah, actually I speak Russian, even Ukrainian also
Boris Agranovich:because I was born in Ukrainian.
Boris Agranovich:So
W. Curtis Preston:right.
Boris Agranovich:when I was there it kind of, uh, uh, was.
Boris Agranovich:Considerate kind sub language.
Boris Agranovich:But now because of Ukrainians growing, it is now kind independent language.
Boris Agranovich:So you can say, now I'm proud that I can mention Ukrainian as my language
Boris Agranovich:additional, because before that it was kinda a subset of Russian
Boris Agranovich:language, but uh, it's separate word.
Boris Agranovich:I, for 25 years and I moved to Israel, I had to, to study some
Boris Agranovich:another language and I studied.
Boris Agranovich:I lived in Israel and worked in IT company.
Boris Agranovich:Then I moved, uh, to Europe.
Boris Agranovich:To the Netherlands where I have to start, uh, from my Israeli company.
Boris Agranovich:So I started Dutch little bit, but English was on background, so English remained.
Boris Agranovich:Uh, little bit on third language.
Boris Agranovich:Uh, But I still, uh, I like more Latino, so I, uh, I studied little
Boris Agranovich:bit Spanish also, not, not perfectly, but enough to, to go to a vacation
Boris Agranovich:and, uh, not to be afraid of, uh, stage things, uh, happening to me.
W. Curtis Preston:So you, you can, you can converse in all those languages.
Boris Agranovich:Uh, yeah.
Boris Agranovich:Yeah.
Boris Agranovich:On basic levels.
Boris Agranovich:Yeah, on basic levels.
W. Curtis Preston:I find, I find that fascinating.
W. Curtis Preston:That's just, that's just absolutely amazing.
Boris Agranovich:Yeah, it's a good for risk management.
Boris Agranovich:It's good for risk management,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I was gonna say with all the countries,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:a dial, X-ray or languages.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:And uh, I think I told you, you know, that, I mean, my, my Russian is very small
W. Curtis Preston:things like Bre and, and, and, right.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, , I have that, that phrase leftover from the eighties.
Boris Agranovich:uh, 30 years ago in T, but uh, in Russia, it uh, kinda
Boris Agranovich:of degradated, uh, other a direction.
Boris Agranovich:Yeah,
W. Curtis Preston:And I believe in, in, um, Ukrainian, you say, right?
W. Curtis Preston:Uh, instead of,
Boris Agranovich:it.
W. Curtis Preston:yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, it probably doesn't even register for you.
W. Curtis Preston:You just sort of do it.
Boris Agranovich:No, I know know now because of this war, I
Boris Agranovich:listen more Ukrainian news, so my Ukrainian was is is kinda a
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Uh,
Boris Agranovich:restoring in my, my, my mind.
Boris Agranovich:Yeah.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Awesome.
W. Curtis Preston:right.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:So I, I think one of the questions I had is, I know
Prasanna Malaiyandi:when you, when I saw that, oh, you're focused on risk management, I was like,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:what is risk management right now?
Boris Agranovich:Yeah, good question.
Boris Agranovich:I'm, I'm not sure that I, I can get, get you, give you all kind
Boris Agranovich:of, uh, uh, uh, academic answer.
Boris Agranovich:But for my, uh, my knowledge, uh, as, uh, layman in layman
Boris Agranovich:terms, if you have your business.
Boris Agranovich:It's kind of you looking forward and to how much you earn.
Boris Agranovich:But you also need to, uh, kind of be a person who knows what can be wrong
Boris Agranovich:in your business so you can, uh, take action when it's, when they are needed
Boris Agranovich:to, uh, protect your, uh, bottom line and also catastrophic events for.
Boris Agranovich:What can happen, you can be financial, you can be exposed to financial risk, you
Boris Agranovich:can be exposed to operational risk, you can be exposed to, uh, governance risk.
Boris Agranovich:If you don't do some procedures and uh, some regulations, you
Boris Agranovich:can be exposed to cyber risk.
Boris Agranovich:And I believe there is now also climate risk.
Boris Agranovich:So this kind of risks, you have to, depending on.
Boris Agranovich:Complexity of your business, you, you have to manage all these risks
Boris Agranovich:and depending of, for example, if you are a bank, you probably will have.
Boris Agranovich:Different, uh, risks inside financial risks.
Boris Agranovich:For example, banks have, uh, creditors, they have, uh, they
Boris Agranovich:have, uh, also market risk.
Boris Agranovich:If they trade different currency, they have, uh, within credit risk,
Boris Agranovich:they also have counterparty risk.
Boris Agranovich:So it's kind of becoming a very, very complicated and all this, um, models now
Boris Agranovich:with all this mathematical models and, uh, Of, uh, AI and ml, this is becoming
Boris Agranovich:very, uh, uh, very, uh, strictly, uh, uh, divided because some, some guys
Boris Agranovich:only, uh, specialized in model risk.
Boris Agranovich:In cont model models, uh, developing models in counterparty risks.
Boris Agranovich:Some guys are, uh, specializing in developing.
Boris Agranovich:Ed risk.
Boris Agranovich:So this all, all, uh, very contr, uh, contemplated.
W. Curtis Preston:that, that phrase that you used, you said counterparty risk.
Boris Agranovich:Counterpart, for example, you now you have this
Boris Agranovich:now crisis with crypto, right?
Boris Agranovich:Uh, crypto exchanges, right?
Boris Agranovich:And because they were a counterparty with other guys.
Boris Agranovich:That probably didn't get, uh, any wrong, but cause they, uh, probably, uh,
Boris Agranovich:failed to deliver, uh, to pay on loans.
Boris Agranovich:A lot of, uh, uh, their counterparties exposed to counterparty risk,
Boris Agranovich:uh, from this FDX exchange.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:they're not directly at risk, but because they were associated
Prasanna Malaiyandi:through some lineage, they're at risk now.
Boris Agranovich:Exactly.
Boris Agranovich:Yeah.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:So I'm just thinking though, that like as a company owner,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:a business owner, you're so focused on building the business, right?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Who even thinks about all of these risks out there?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Like Curtis, I know you had a business
Prasanna Malaiyandi:before, right?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:?Yeah, Yeah, I know Boris does, but Curtis like, Been business owner before.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Have you thought about these things?
W. Curtis Preston:Not, certainly not in the way that, that Boris did.
W. Curtis Preston:I mean, we, we mainly thought about, I don't know, I, I think I thought about.
W. Curtis Preston:Things that I felt I had some, no, I felt some things that I
W. Curtis Preston:felt I had some control over.
W. Curtis Preston:Right.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, and the risks mainly for me at the time were financial risks.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, the, there was the concern because we were such a small company.
W. Curtis Preston:There was the concern, there was the competitive risk of, of a, you
W. Curtis Preston:know, a, a much larger competitor, basically deciding to get into
W. Curtis Preston:the same business that we were in.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, but the thing is, I was such, I was such small potatoes that, like,
W. Curtis Preston:considering them a risk was almost, it, it was like, I just, you know what I mean?
W. Curtis Preston:It's like, um, I don't know.
W. Curtis Preston:It's hard to, hard to describe, but I, I don't think I thought
W. Curtis Preston:about it certainly in the way that, that Boris thinks about it.
W. Curtis Preston:I, you know, and of course I'm a backup guy, so I think about those risks.
Boris Agranovich:Ah.
Boris Agranovich:Yeah, it's part of, I think, cyber risk or it risk, I think, and what you talk about.
Boris Agranovich:Uh uh, uh, sorry, I may be interrupt.
Boris Agranovich:Uh, but what you said about it is business risk.
Boris Agranovich:What you say, what, what, what is related to competitors or your business?
Boris Agranovich:Um, business plans or business?
Boris Agranovich:Uh, kind of, uh, uh, product products.
Boris Agranovich:Uh, we call it, uh, business risk.
Boris Agranovich:We don't put it in the category for kind of finance it cyber, so it's kinda
Boris Agranovich:business rules that actually shouldn't be only, uh, Processed by risk people,
Boris Agranovich:they should be kinda processed by, uh, business people, but they have
Boris Agranovich:to be, uh, supported by risk people.
Boris Agranovich:So they, if you produce a new product, product, for example,
Boris Agranovich:risk people have to look on it.
Boris Agranovich:What is it about maybe some regulatory risk or credit
Boris Agranovich:risk or some, some other risk?
W. Curtis Preston:Mm-hmm.
W. Curtis Preston:Interesting.
W. Curtis Preston:And so as a, so I'm assuming at a.
W. Curtis Preston:A company would have a risk manager, right?
W. Curtis Preston:Would, each like, I don't know how large a company would be before
W. Curtis Preston:they have a risk manager, like an employee versus a risk management
Prasanna Malaiyandi:It.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:It probably also depends on the industry.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Like I could imagine a financial company, even if they're small,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:They probably have a risk function in there versus like a tech company
Prasanna Malaiyandi:may not do it until it's a certain.
Boris Agranovich:Yeah, absolutely.
Boris Agranovich:Uh, because I was originally from banking in the insurance industry.
Boris Agranovich:So this is where, uh, they have to, uh, have a risk management, even department
Boris Agranovich:of risk management, where they all will do, they develop all these models for
Boris Agranovich:this, uh, different types of, uh, risk.
Boris Agranovich:Uh, and they have to kind of contact, uh, my regular with the regulators about
Boris Agranovich:all these new rules, uh, like socks and.
Boris Agranovich:But now I think many other companies, uh, also develop risk management department.
Boris Agranovich:I think, uh, for example, if you look at health and safety industry,
Boris Agranovich:there are also kind health and.
Boris Agranovich:Separate probably, um, division of risk management.
Boris Agranovich:And they have to, they have all their own, their own kinda regulators.
Boris Agranovich:Also, if you look at, uh, industry and now with climate change is all
Boris Agranovich:related also with this compliance.
Boris Agranovich:So, uh, although risk and compliance or very often different, uh, different,
Boris Agranovich:uh, disciplines, they sometimes kinda, uh, glued together to.
Boris Agranovich:Have a kinda based basic kinda risk management or compliance
Boris Agranovich:department in some, some topics.
Boris Agranovich:So they, for example, if a new, uh, and compliance procedure arises
Boris Agranovich:from, uh, from regulation, they have to up and develop response.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Yeah.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I, I'm also just thinking like, so I work worse in privacy, right?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:And so anytime you have like regulators or when decisions get made right
Prasanna Malaiyandi:now, it's like, okay, how does that impact everything else that's being.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Or that has been built already.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Right.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:And what is the risk there associated with some of those?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Um, I guess the one question I had for you, Boris, is so I
Prasanna Malaiyandi:understand like there's people who go thinking about the risks.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Can you talk a little bit about like, why should people even
Prasanna Malaiyandi:care about these risks, right?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Like, what are, what's the outcome if they ignore these risks or if they
Prasanna Malaiyandi:didn't have a risk manager or something?
Boris Agranovich:Yeah, it depends, of course, if you are a small business,
Boris Agranovich:uh, you don't have to have a specific risk management role, uh, in your.
Boris Agranovich:Company, but at least you have to manage your risks yourself.
Boris Agranovich:For example, maybe you have a kind small understanding of what your risks are.
Boris Agranovich:Maybe you have an account and accounted and he will talk or
Boris Agranovich:she will talk to you of business.
Boris Agranovich:It'll enough.
Boris Agranovich:For example, you know you have a pay, you have credit cause you, you
Boris Agranovich:have invoices probably you have some days from your invoices and probably
Boris Agranovich:it'll be about maybe one month.
Boris Agranovich:And some big companies they don't even pay after three months.
Boris Agranovich:So it's uh, kinda shame.
Boris Agranovich:And some people have to, to manage their invoices and
Boris Agranovich:probably liquidity so they don't,
Boris Agranovich:invoices don't.
W. Curtis Preston:that that was.
W. Curtis Preston:That was one thing I remember as a small company, I, I often did business
W. Curtis Preston:with very large companies and we were doing, you know, we would be sending
W. Curtis Preston:an invoice and we're doing an, we were putting on events an event.
W. Curtis Preston:When you put on events, it's very costly and so we wanted as much as
W. Curtis Preston:possible for the customers to pay up front and many of them would, and our
W. Curtis Preston:contract would specify that they're supposed to, but those bigger companies,
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah, I know we're not gonna do that.
W. Curtis Preston:And what are you gonna do?
W. Curtis Preston:Do you want our money?
W. Curtis Preston:You want our, you want our money in 90 days or do you want no money?
W. Curtis Preston:Right.
W. Curtis Preston:And you have, you have no power to, uh, You know, I remember,
W. Curtis Preston:like, I remember one time when I, I showed them our, our msa, right?
W. Curtis Preston:Our master services agreement, this one vendor, and they're like, that's cute.
W. Curtis Preston:Here's ours, sign it, or, you know, walk.
Boris Agranovich:Yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:was like, oh, okay.
W. Curtis Preston:Well I guess we're signing their msa, right?
W. Curtis Preston:And they're like, we do a net 180, right?
W. Curtis Preston:You.
Boris Agranovich:Uh, wow.
Boris Agranovich:Yeah, I know these companies, but now I think, uh, regulators in Europe
Boris Agranovich:at least, they kind of demand, uh, demand that, uh, these days, uh, uh,
Boris Agranovich:payment days will be less, I think it's now standard 30 days in, in Europe.
Boris Agranovich:Uh, so, uh, kind of small guys also have more, uh, uh, power.
Boris Agranovich:Because, yeah, it's one of the biggest risks if you do an event like this.
Boris Agranovich:And do you, you have to pay from your pocket.
Boris Agranovich:And do you have a liquidity issue with don't, you're not to pay your for a a,
W. Curtis Preston:remember sitting there often sitting there with over a
W. Curtis Preston:hundred thousand dollars in receivables.
W. Curtis Preston:Very little in the bank.
W. Curtis Preston:Meanwhile, I need to make payroll.
W. Curtis Preston:Right.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, I'll tell you, I did, we had, we did have a clause in our contract,
W. Curtis Preston:um, and it's a, um, it's a company that persona that you and I both know,
W. Curtis Preston:obviously I'm not gonna shame 'em on the podcast, but they were, they
W. Curtis Preston:were a company that I worked with.
W. Curtis Preston:And what it was, was I had a clause and a contract that said after 30
W. Curtis Preston:days we start adding, it was like 1%.
W. Curtis Preston:To the invoice, um, that it was like, it was like it was either 1% or half
W. Curtis Preston:a percent per day to the invoice after, after a certain period of
W. Curtis Preston:time, it might have been 60 days.
W. Curtis Preston:Right.
W. Curtis Preston:And there was this one customer I had that, um, they were blowing
W. Curtis Preston:me off and, um, I, uh, I kept, I kept sending them updated invoices.
W. Curtis Preston:I'm like, your invoice is now a hundred percent more.
W. Curtis Preston:, you know, because of compounded penalties and at some point it got to
W. Curtis Preston:actually 150% of the original value, you know, or 250%, if you will, of
W. Curtis Preston:the original value of the invoice.
W. Curtis Preston:And they were blowing me off and then they got acquired or
W. Curtis Preston:they were going to get acquired.
W. Curtis Preston:By a company.
W. Curtis Preston:And I was like, oh, this is like, if I don't, I gotta do it now, right?
W. Curtis Preston:If I don't fix it now.
W. Curtis Preston:And I, um, I went and I went to, uh, there used to be this
W. Curtis Preston:company called, uh, jigsaw.
W. Curtis Preston:The, then it got acquired by Salesforce.
W. Curtis Preston:That was like where you could go and you could just easily get the, you
W. Curtis Preston:know, some key names from company.
W. Curtis Preston:And I went and I got the ceo, the cfo.
W. Curtis Preston:The chairman of the board and I got all their contact information and
W. Curtis Preston:then I sent them registered letters and emails and, and everything, and
W. Curtis Preston:I basically said, I have a contract with your name on it, and you have not
W. Curtis Preston:contested a contract you now owe me.
W. Curtis Preston:I mean, it went from like $18,000 to $40,000.
W. Curtis Preston:And, and, um, and you're about to be acquired.
W. Curtis Preston:And I have this, this is a, this is a lie against your company essentially.
W. Curtis Preston:Amazingly, I got a FedEx the next day with a check with a check for $40,000.
W. Curtis Preston:That
Boris Agranovich:No, you don't pay lawyers
W. Curtis Preston:day.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:That was a good, that was a good day.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, so there was something else that you and I talked about in the pre-call.
W. Curtis Preston:You mentioned this thing you have called the, the, um, darn it.
W. Curtis Preston:What did you call it?
Boris Agranovich:We, we, we have a, we as a global risk community,
Boris Agranovich:we often create kind of products kind emanating from our community.
Boris Agranovich:So we created a GRC business, continue to tool it, which you are probably,
Boris Agranovich:you are interested, your users can find on our cited Global Risk Academy.
Boris Agranovich:Don't come.
Boris Agranovich:So yeah, this is the.
W. Curtis Preston:am really curious when we talk about, I always talk about
W. Curtis Preston:data protection and backup, and Dr.
W. Curtis Preston:And I always mention that that is a component.
W. Curtis Preston:Of business continuance overall.
W. Curtis Preston:So I am curious from your vantage point, besides the idea of recovering
W. Curtis Preston:your computing environment, what else does somebody need to have
W. Curtis Preston:in a business continuance plan?
Boris Agranovich:Yeah, absolutely.
Boris Agranovich:So, um, I will tell you that, uh, our two kit contains, uh,
Boris Agranovich:different various, um, kind of.
Boris Agranovich:Document.
Boris Agranovich:For example, we have business impact analysis questionnaire.
Boris Agranovich:So you will have to go through all your inventories and do some work.
Boris Agranovich:Then you have a BCP template, which is a business continuity plan template.
Boris Agranovich:So you will have to, to work through all this, uh, processes
Boris Agranovich:and, uh, figure out what is, uh, important, what is less important.
Boris Agranovich:Then we have business continuity, uh, recovery, uh, questionnaire.
Boris Agranovich:And then we have a business, uh, uh, procedures like, uh,
Boris Agranovich:business risk analysis template.
Boris Agranovich:So it's all very documented based on the best practices in banks and
Boris Agranovich:very, uh, sophisticated institution.
Boris Agranovich:So we have also Chris crisis management plan that actually when we spoke about
Boris Agranovich:with you, with small companies, I think it's this plan should be available for.
Boris Agranovich:Even for small companies.
Boris Agranovich:So also sample, uh, sample vulnerability chart with all this appliances and uh, big
Boris Agranovich:machinery that you have should be there.
Boris Agranovich:So it's kind of a complete scoring methodology that will help, uh, even
Boris Agranovich:uh, people who are not, um, familiar with this, uh, uh, discipline.
Boris Agranovich:They can download it and they can just, uh, start from scratch filling it.
Boris Agranovich:Uh, and also it's has some glossary, so, For terms, people who don't know
Boris Agranovich:anything can, uh, can uh, see, see what, what is the important stuff.
Boris Agranovich:So also technology recovery plan there.
Boris Agranovich:So this is all.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I, I'm thinking this is super helpful for
Prasanna Malaiyandi:people who aren't aware, right?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Of what risk is and what question should they be even trying to find the answers
Prasanna Malaiyandi:for, because they may not be, it's like, When you're like, your insurance carrier
Prasanna Malaiyandi:says, oh, how much insurance do you want?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:You're like, I don't know how much insurance I need.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:What are the questions I should be asking?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Right?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:To figure that out.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:And it looks like this toolkit sort of helps you go through and answer
Prasanna Malaiyandi:those questions and figure out, okay, where do I potentially have risks?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:And, oh, I may not have thought about crisis management like Curtis, for when
Prasanna Malaiyandi:you had your small company, did you have a plan in place in case someone got sick or.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:flight got missed, like when you're going to an event,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:right?
W. Curtis Preston:yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:Flight got, yeah, flight got missed, but, but like I, I was the main
W. Curtis Preston:speaker at these events that we put on.
W. Curtis Preston:There was no plan for Curtis gets sick, right.
W. Curtis Preston:Curtis gets.
W. Curtis Preston:Curtis gets covid and there's no speaker.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, the, we, we had, we had all kinds of, uh, travel issues
W. Curtis Preston:over the, over the years, right?
W. Curtis Preston:Because we were often.
W. Curtis Preston:It was Monday morning was always a difficult, cuz we do a, we do an event
W. Curtis Preston:on Tuesday, we'd do an event on Thursday.
W. Curtis Preston:We would fly, you know, so we're flying on the very first flight on a Monday morning.
W. Curtis Preston:Again, managing risk.
W. Curtis Preston:The risk was that the flight you're on is delayed and or canceled.
W. Curtis Preston:And so, You might wanna fly in the afternoon, but if that flight is delayed,
W. Curtis Preston:you're not making it to the city.
W. Curtis Preston:So we would fly out on the first available flight, even if that was
W. Curtis Preston:six in the morning, and we would fly to to, to wherever we were going.
W. Curtis Preston:That was the biggest risk, was that the entire, cuz we're all in, we all lived in
W. Curtis Preston:San Diego, we were all in the same flight.
W. Curtis Preston:If that flight was delayed.
W. Curtis Preston:There was no event happening.
W. Curtis Preston:Right.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, there was no backup team.
W. Curtis Preston:There was no, there was no nothing.
W. Curtis Preston:And, um, and I, I remember, um, uh, probably the worst thing
W. Curtis Preston:that happened to us while we were traveling, we landed in, um, Houston.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah, I'm talking to you Houston.
W. Curtis Preston:I will never forget this.
W. Curtis Preston:I landed, we landed in Houston and we went to go to dinner
W. Curtis Preston:and we weren't, um, we weren't.
W. Curtis Preston:Paying attention.
W. Curtis Preston:And we had our backpacks in the backseat and we went to dinner and they broke
W. Curtis Preston:in and they stole all our backpacks.
W. Curtis Preston:So they stole all three laptops, all three iPads.
W. Curtis Preston:So we had to do the event like we had, everything was in like Google Docs and
W. Curtis Preston:what not, but we had no laptops to get to Google Docs like we were doing, we were
W. Curtis Preston:doing stuff on phones and stuff like that.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, But the, yeah, that was, I think that's the worst
W. Curtis Preston:thing that happened to it.
W. Curtis Preston:That one and the time when I went to go, it was the morning before
W. Curtis Preston:we're, you know, we're getting ready to travel and we had these two cases
W. Curtis Preston:of equipment that we always traveled with and um, uh, I won't say who, but.
W. Curtis Preston:She might be the singer on the theme song of this podcast who left the garage
W. Curtis Preston:door open with my equipment in the garage and someone stole all my equipment.
W. Curtis Preston:And I, I found that out the day before the show.
W. Curtis Preston:So, no, we never had a backup plan.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, you know, the backup plan was we don't have an.
Boris Agranovich:Mm-hmm.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, that's just, that's just the way.
W. Curtis Preston:So cur this, this, uh, this toolkit that you're talking about
W. Curtis Preston:is this, do they pay for this?
W. Curtis Preston:Resources is a free resource.
W. Curtis Preston:How, how does that work?
Boris Agranovich:No, it's, it's actually paid the resource.
Boris Agranovich:Uh, they can find it on Global Risk Academy.
Boris Agranovich:It's,
Boris Agranovich:uh, yeah, it's 1, 1 79, uh, US dollars.
Boris Agranovich:But I think if you, if they wanted to have some initial, uh, uh, free
Boris Agranovich:resources, we have a lot of them on our site at, uh, also at Global Risk
Boris Agranovich:Academy as a core site and on global risk, global risk community.com as
Boris Agranovich:a kinda block event site, uh, whole.
W. Curtis Preston:So it's global risk academy.com,
Boris Agranovich:global risk Academy is a kind of course site, uh, online
Boris Agranovich:courses for our community people.
Boris Agranovich:Normally we,
W. Curtis Preston:sure it's, it's global risk academy.com.
Boris Agranovich:yeah, global risk
Boris Agranovich:academy.com.
W. Curtis Preston:Okay.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:So if people wanted to just learn more about risk
Prasanna Malaiyandi:management, they could probably go to the global risk community website, right?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:To read the blogs, understand more about it.
Boris Agranovich:They can go, they can read it free, even if
Boris Agranovich:they don't want to be a member.
Boris Agranovich:But if they become, if they become member, it's free.
Boris Agranovich:And then you will, they will get, uh, once per week newsletter, which they
Boris Agranovich:can also unsubscribe if they don't want to have a lot of emails in their box.
Boris Agranovich:But, uh, in, in mainly this is, uh, because.
Boris Agranovich:Important.
Boris Agranovich:They, they can read the blogs, they can participate in a lot of events.
Boris Agranovich:We and our partners produce and also read some partnership, um, posts, for
Boris Agranovich:example, guys, uh, produce some research and some, uh, kind of benchmark reports.
Boris Agranovich:So this all we deliver on our.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I was just curious.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I know Boris, you talked about sort of climate risk.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Is that something that's new and like an up and coming research area or risk area
Prasanna Malaiyandi:that people have to now start considering?
Boris Agranovich:Yeah, I think for big companies.
Boris Agranovich:And now with all this esg, uh, uh, you know, isg, what do you call it?
Boris Agranovich:Environment, um, uh,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:The environment sustainability
Boris Agranovich:oh, sustainability and, uh,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Yeah.
Boris Agranovich:Governance, I think, or something like this, uh, because it's now
Boris Agranovich:on govern government level over the world.
Boris Agranovich:They decide, uh, kinda, uh, co2, uh, emission plans to, uh, stop
Boris Agranovich:trying to stop climate, uh, change.
Boris Agranovich:And, uh, it's to have a lot of, uh, consequences on the level of companies,
Boris Agranovich:for example, in, uh, Oil and gas and, uh, mining companies because they use
Boris Agranovich:a lot of resources and they have to.
Boris Agranovich:For example, now in Europe, I think we own a a, uh, wrong, uh, of this is ISG
Boris Agranovich:because, uh, a of uh, Very wise, uh, uh, policy, politics, policy people in,
Boris Agranovich:for example, Germany, they decided to get rid of all this oil, gas, and such a
Boris Agranovich:warm company as warm country as Germany.
Boris Agranovich:They decided to.
Boris Agranovich:Rely on sun and, uh, wind, uh, and uh, also on the Russian, on the Russian gas.
Boris Agranovich:And of course in this, uh, climate, they now, they don't have Russian energy.
Boris Agranovich:And the sun Sunday weather is also doesn't help.
Boris Agranovich:Uh, so now we help, we have a lot of, uh, issues with sg.
Boris Agranovich:Because people, uh, stopped, uh, in investing in oil and gas.
Boris Agranovich:But this all kinda, uh, not ag to blame, but uh, kinda, uh, mind of this politics.
Boris Agranovich:This politics intervene in the business.
Boris Agranovich:And, uh, also it kind, um, um, prevents, uh, a good develop.
Boris Agranovich:and of course it's a kind of social movement, you know, all
Boris Agranovich:this greenwash, uh, it's kind of on television people, uh, doing a lot
Boris Agranovich:of demonstration and, uh, politic and starting to kind of take action.
Boris Agranovich:And because of this, uh, we have such a big problems, but ESG itself is a
Boris Agranovich:good idea, but, uh, it, uh, produces.
Boris Agranovich:Many, uh, results that are not, uh, kind of, uh, uh, beneficial
Boris Agranovich:for, for all, uh, people.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah, I, I think that's, you know, anytime you have a big.
W. Curtis Preston:Social movement like that.
W. Curtis Preston:Uh, like in this case, environmental science, we have the same
W. Curtis Preston:problem in, in cloud, right?
W. Curtis Preston:So people are, people are moving to the cloud and you get a lot of cloud
W. Curtis Preston:washing, you'll get a lot of people are like, oh, we're cloud, we're good.
W. Curtis Preston:You know, it's like, eh, you're not really cloud, right?
W. Curtis Preston:Um, and um, you know, we, we did a couple of episodes.
W. Curtis Preston:I don't know if you.
W. Curtis Preston:You being where you're at.
W. Curtis Preston:Did, did you remember that, that cl the story about the OVH cloud, uh, the
W. Curtis Preston:giant fire that was there a couple years
Prasanna Malaiyandi:France, I think
W. Curtis Preston:in France?
Boris Agranovich:Um,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:they're a cloud company that hosted data
Prasanna Malaiyandi:centers in containers, cargo
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah, and there was a giant fire that that took out
W. Curtis Preston:a couple of data centers and a lot of customers actually lost data even though
W. Curtis Preston:they had paid for the backup system.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, that I'm surprised that it.
W. Curtis Preston:That it hasn't made it over your way, but then again, you
W. Curtis Preston:don't focus on DR and stuff.
W. Curtis Preston:But that, that popped, that popped on my radar pretty, pretty quick.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, any final thoughts that you have, Boris, uh, that you know, things that
W. Curtis Preston:you would've wanted to talk about?
Boris Agranovich:Yeah, I think, uh, with you guys, I think we have a lot of, uh, in
Boris Agranovich:common because you're also managing risk and I, it's of course, it's kind of, uh,
Boris Agranovich:one of the, uh, many, uh, facets of risk.
W. Curtis Preston:Mm-hmm.
Boris Agranovich:it's in, uh, it domain.
Boris Agranovich:I'm not sure it's only, but maybe organizational domain.
Boris Agranovich:So I think, uh, if people have some more questions and uh, uh, about, uh,
Boris Agranovich:risk management also in about this business, continue to talk it, they can
Boris Agranovich:go to our site, uh, and check it out.
Boris Agranovich:Um, it's available and, uh, I'm always open for questions in blog
Boris Agranovich:and discussions, uh, and event.
Boris Agranovich:So also some people who want to join our podcast.
Boris Agranovich:As you guys, uh, you joined, welcome to discuss this important topic of business
Boris Agranovich:continuity and, uh, disaster recovery.
Boris Agranovich:We're happy to, to provide, uh, your view to, to our.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah, absolutely.
W. Curtis Preston:And, uh, persona great with your questions as well,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:No thank you Curtis.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Good luck with the floor and Boris it.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Nice chatting with you.
W. Curtis Preston:and, uh, and I'll thank, I'll thank
W. Curtis Preston:you to our, uh, listeners.
W. Curtis Preston:Make sure to subscribe so that you can restore it all.