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(WARNING: Do not read any further if you want to remain calm; do not read any further if you want to keep believing that ‘everything is under control’ do not read any further if you have a hot drink in your hand!)

The past few weeks have provided (some say ‘surreal’) provocative food for thought.

Northern Rock, once a pillar of the robust UK building society community, now finds itself indebted to the taxpayers to the tune of some £25Bn and growing, and (even worse) could find itself as one of the strangest ever candidates for Nationalisation.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) let slip into goodness-knows-where discs containing details of 25million Britons. For those 25million, has the phrase ‘lost in the post’ ever had a hollower ring? And what chance ‘return to sender’ I wonder?

The Labour Party’s woes continue on their seemingly never ending trail with the revelation (!) that allegedly secretive and illegal donations, have been made on an ongoing basis and for longer than anyone in the Party, or its National Executive Committee (NEC), would like to admit.

Just three recent cases worthy of headline news reporting by the majority of the nation’s media industry. Surreal? Well, a little known but nevertheless intriguing fact that all the above activities originate within the same UK post code area. Spooky or what? This must, of course, be put down to sheer coincidence - we hope.

What cannot be placed at the door of our eternal friend ‘coincidence’ though, is the underlying thread in all of the above - and that is the need for a robust risk aware culture within organisations.

A robust risk aware culture could capture for example, at the earliest possible time, that a major business may be in need of some very careful contingency management on behalf of its customers, and certainly careful media and communications exposure as well. A robust risk aware culture could prevent a young administration assistant being able to condemn the personal information of 25million people to a post box. A robust risk aware culture is one that could help identify the ‘rules’ on an ongoing basis, and at the same time identify what the phrase ‘overseeing financial donations’ actually means.

Unfair criticism of the organisations involved in the recent breaking news items? Judgmental? Some may say ‘yes’. But that’s to miss the point of the debate. Each of the above organisations already has clear rules of operation; each of the above organisations has clear responsibilities and accountabilities; each of the above organisations believed it had the bases covered; each of the above organisations has learned, to its detriment, that this was clearly not the case.

In our own organisations, do we believe we have those bases ‘covered’? Are we in danger of believing what we believe? Is our risk aware culture embedded well enough (and understood enough) in ourselves, in our staff, in our outsourced service providers and in our general supply chain, to ensure a robust enough foundation that protects our operation, our customers and future?

So here we are in 2007. For many years now, as a business practice, we have pondered the moves from pure emergency response, to disaster recovery, to business continuity and now to business availability. As we head into 2008 and beyond, and as opposed to just re-jigging our technical BC plans, maybe a serious look at how our organisation’s risk aware culture measures up wouldn’t be too bad a New Year resolution?

If you were a Northern Rock customer; or one of those 25million people ‘lost in the post’ or a Labour Party member, it would probably sound like a good idea. And maybe it sounds like a good idea - even if you’re not?

Stumble It!