W. Curtis Preston:

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.