Commercial Aviation Risk Management: Useful for Financial Industry?

Chris Hart
National Transportation Safety Board

Experience in the commercial aviation industry has demonstrated that the process for investigating and addressing low-frequency high-consequence events is not necessarily suitable for investigating and addressing high-frequency low-consequence events. For the former, the industry relies upon an exhaustive investigation process led by the National Transportation Safety Board; and for the latter, the industry relies largely upon a voluntary process called the Commercial Aviation Safety Team. Both processes rely heavily upon collaboration. Collaboration can be very powerful when everyone who is involved in the problem is involved in the solution. The objective of both processes is to reduce risk, but risk management programs that hurt the bottom line are probably not sustainable. Experience in the aviation industry has demonstrated that collaboration can help ensure that risk management programs improve productivity while reducing risk, which helps make them sustainable. While one size may not fit all, many of these lessons learned in commercial aviation are probably transferable to the financial industries.

Presentation (PDF File)

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