Karl A L Smith

human knowledge belongs to the world

Governance

Does Organisational Control Really Require More Oversight?

Most organisations respond to complexity in familiar ways. More reporting. More approvals. More controls. More governance. More management visibility. When something goes wrong, the instinct is often to increase oversight. It seems logical: If leaders can see more of what…

Do We Really Need to See Everything to Manage Risk?

Risk management has traditionally depended on information. Collect more. Monitor more. Retain more. Analyse more. Identify patterns. Spot anomalies. Create audit trails. The logic seems obvious: The more an organisation can see, the better equipped it is to manage risk….

Why Do We Assume Organisations Need To See Everything?

Modern organisations are built around visibility. We monitor. We analyse. We track. We measure. We justify these activities as necessary for security, compliance, operations and customer service. But what if we’ve mistaken visibility for necessity? For decades, digital systems have…

Why Does Every Digital Interaction Leave a Trail?

Every time we interact online, a record is created. A login. A purchase. A search. A message. A click. Most of us accept this as a normal part of digital life. But why? Why should every interaction generate a permanent…

Why Is My Identity Stored Everywhere Except With Me?

Every few weeks another organisation asks me to prove who I am. My bank knows. My employer knows. My insurer knows. My airline knows. Government departments know. Countless websites know. The obvious question is: Why is my identity stored in…

Why Am I Expected to Trust Everyone?

Every person knows this feeling. You book a holiday. You open a bank account. You use a mobile app. You join a loyalty programme. You visit a website. Each interaction comes with an invisible transaction. Your information in exchange for…