A booming business is a good problem to have. As your business scales up, the additional work can affect your company’s departments disproportionately. Some departments will be...
Scaling Smartly: Automation as an Alternative to Adding Labor
The two major aspects of my life are raising two boys, and my career as an energy consultant, and I love both aspects. The two aspects of my life have natural synergies and...
Scaling Smartly: Define Good Processes Before You Automate
Humans love consistency. Sure, we occasionally want to be scared, or surprised, or to discover new things. But we mostly like things to be predictable.
Among commodity trading organizations, there is an unexpectedly wide variety of internal credit risk analysis processes. Many firms measure less than is prudent given their...
How many times have you looked at the list of data sources coming into your commodity/energy trading and risk management systems (CTRM/ETRM systems) and been shocked at the...
How to Apply a Hybrid Agile Methodology to CTRM Projects
In our last blog on this subject, Agile vs. Waterfall: Which Delivery Approach is Right for You?, we focused on two standard project management methodologies – Waterfall and Agile...
Market Relationships: The Foundation for Risk Analysis
Modeling the relationships between markets is sometimes underappreciated as a prerequisite to solid risk analysis. Market relationships reflect linkages between markets that...
Collaboration Including Women and Diversity Yields Better Results
Since 1904, the concept of "general intelligence" was widely accepted. The idea was that people who are good at one mental task tend to be good at many others. With changes in...
Data Lakes vs. Data Warehouses: What’s the Difference?
During a recent conversation with one of our clients, we were discussing market data for commodities and the best way to storeand access them. For the uninitiated, commodity-...
Managing Four Generations in the Workplace
There are four distinct generations represented by the majority of Americans in the workplace. According to a study by Dr. Bea Bourne, Purdue University, generational differences...
What Features to Consider When Selecting an RPA Software
Most people interested in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) by now, understand the benefits and value it can create for your organization. As a refresher see Demystifying Digital...
As a holder of the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) Energy Risk Professional (ERP) certification, people often ask me whether they should obtain it. As with most...