Great posting by mn.goldie on RB (post 2664):
Interesting read...Manakoa Corporation [mkos]
About the Company:
“…risk management is the process whereby threats to the organization’s or individual's strategies are managed. This takes the idea of risk management beyond considering pure risk alone to identifying the downside of management's strategies. Thus the risk manager is the devil's advocate, showing top management what can go wrong with a particular plan and providing scenarios of the consequences. This means that the risk manager must look for threats to all aspects of the organisation's plan.”
–Risk Management, by Dr. Brian Greenford, Lecturer in Insurance and Assistant Dean Academic Affairs, Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick
Risk management has come a long way since it's inception in the 1960’s as a function of the insurance industry. RM was conceived as a solution to the problem of financial loss due to what previously had been considered incalculable risk. Insurance companies realized that the burden of huge payouts due to fire, theft, errant asteroids, and so on, could be substantially reduced if measures were put into place in advance to manage the risks. Simply put, the insurers realized that risk was manageable, and that calculating it could be profitable.
Today RM has a completely evolved horizon. New concerns and technologies have created new risks, and as such the field of key players is rapidly changing.
Consider Manakoa Services Corporation (MKOS), a junior at the development stage with an edge that has attracted working relationships with Microsoft, Quanstar, and Global Options in this $100 billion a year industry.
Manakoa’s is a polymorphic approach to RM, in the sense that the company is structured to adapt to the needs of its clients while providing end users with accurate analytics. To this end, Manakoa has assembled an impressive team of professionals from diverse facets of the RM, security, compliance management, and technology industries.
Unique Management, Unique Approach
Manakoa’s unique place among its competitors is a reflection of its management team’s modern, post 9/11 approach to RM.
The events of 9/11, along with the resultant Homeland Security and Patriot Acts, have left RM companies fumbling to assimilate these new threats into risk and compliance management. Not so with Manakoa; the team has a sound intelligence background, including being positioned as a member of the Department of Homeland Security Infragard organization.
The company’s chairman, Stuart Platt, is a retired Rear Admiral with the US Navy and author of The Armament Tide who was appointed by President Reagan as the Navy’s first Competition Advocate General, responsible for the methodology and purchasing of US Navy ships. Recently, Platt added commentary in the January 2004 Naval Institute Proceeding regarding the defeat of Al Qaeda.
Manakoa’s Vice President of Business Development Edward Nichols recently toured America’s defense installations as a special guest of the U.S. Northern Command and NORAD. As well, James Riviere, who sits on Manakoa’s board, served on a special Department of Defense committee assigned the responsibility of recommending specific plans for modernization of key military programs.
Manakoa’s team goes beyond the typical image-based approach to this industry. Its team is diverse, but with an emphasis on military know-how, intelligent tech expertise and a broad understanding of management across a vast network of world class corporations, including IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Appogee Biometrics, Alcoa, Boeing, Honeywell, Motorola, HP and so on.
It is instructive and impressive to read through the company’s management and board of directors’ brief profile list, so I’ll list it after this article.
Relationships are Key to Manakoa’s Future
Manakoa has clearly invested an enormous amount of time fostering relationships with its partners. Manakoa’s President Jim Katzaroff has said, “Manakoa is about people, partnerships and software in a hundred billion dollar plus market segment where we are clearly about to be a large player.”
Katzaroff has a point. Risk Management is a diverse industry with many players. The leap from development to sales and marketing will require solid partnerships as well as groundbreaking technology.
To kick-start its efforts in making the transition from business model to a successful enterprise, Manakoa developed working relationships with QuanStar and Global Options, the former for forming and strengthening relationships, the latter for co-productivity in RM.
Manakoa also has the backing of Microsoft in ensuring windows environment compatibility of its products.
David Hamilton, Microsoft’s Director of Windows and Enterprise Management Division, in November acknowledged the business relationship between his company and Manakoa. “We are excited about working with Manakoa and the enhanced opportunity that MOM [Microsoft Operations Manager] 2005 brings to Manakoa’s Compliance WorkCenter customers.”
The Products are Manakoa
The final result of its efforts, the Manakoa “Compliance Platform”, provides enterprises with a single source for tackling the demands of U.S. and international regulations, as well as determining and monitoring their present state of “risk”. The Compliance Platform comprises a quartet of products, all presently in beta form, scheduled to be released as early as mid-first quarter 2005.
A good way to get an understanding of what the company plans deliver is to check out the Manakoa website at www.manakoa.com. There are, however, aspects of the beta product that reveal where Manakoa is headed, and where Manakoa, if it gets its way, will take the whole industry.
The benefits of Manakoa’s suite range from easing the tedium of government and industry compliance, to preventing costly litigation – RM is the art of preventing worst-case scenarios. Compliance with the The Gramm Leach Bliley Act, USA Patriot Act, HIPAA and Sarbanes Oxley are just a few of Manakoa’s compliance services.
Thus, Manakoa’s business is letting business get down to business.
The Manakoa Compliance Platform
Compliance WorkCenter
This component will assess the client’s level of compliance, perform appropriate gap analyses, and provide Board of Director level plans for achieving compliance.
Compliance Command and Control Center
Based on Board of Director approved compliance plan, controls are implemented to meet and monitor the desired state of risk management and regulatory compliance.
Compliance KnowledgeBase
A subscription-based online information sharing network based on risk management and regulatory compliance, offering a rich source of best practices based on international risk management and security standards such as the ISO, CoBITS, NIST Risk Management and COSO frameworks.
Cyber Attack Simulation Trainer
Jointly developed with the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest Laboratories, this component will test, train and certify IT professionals on strategies aimed at dealing with inter- and intranet attacks.
The Services Implement the Products
If the field of risk management deals with calculating the unknown, it is Manakoa’s mandate to more profoundly flesh out the breadth of the unknown.
Manakoa is a pioneer in what it calls “Integrated Risk Contingency Management.” IRCM is an adaptation to a post 9/11 world where the need to deal with the unknown and implement realistic solutions as taken on new urgency. It seems to me that Manakoa’s products derive en masse from this necessary thinking.
The model assumes that every organization has five primary, interdependent forms of capital that it must nurture and protect: physical, financial, informational, process/organizational and human.
Risks to each of these are assessed by an integration of software tools (the Compliance Platform, see above) and top management consultation and decision-making.
Finally, Manakoa’s training team will provide traditional instruction and internet-based simulations and training from its web site.
The IRCM model’s terms reflect conceptual synergy:
Integrated: Unlike traditional security approaches, the Manakoa Services model takes an integrated approach. The model assumes that every organization has five primary, interdependent forms of capital that it must nurture and protect: physical, financial/statutory, informational, process/organizational and human.
Risk: Risk assessment starts with identification of all potential vulnerabilities, analyzed against organizational assets. Mission-critical assets are prioritized and then mapped against potential threats. The risk assessment process is continuous; vulnerabilities will shift regularly.
Contingency: Once the risks are identified and prioritized, then contingency planning is required. For example, sound business practice dictates that product companies should maintain alternate supply chains.
Management: Manakoa Services provides both a product and consultative services to bridge the management gap, including formatted report templates to capture, analyze and report compliance to best practices and company policies and guidelines.
The Bottom Line
Manakoa’s Compliance Platform and its IRCM model should provide excellent return on investment. In addition to protecting against external and cyber attacks, employee damage, or natural disasters, adhering to Manakoa’s best practices will improve client productivity by reducing inefficiencies and downtime through managerial, technical, and operational controls. Once Manakoa’s platform is operational and functioning on a subscription and cost per service basis, perhaps by early 2005, and with ongoing cooperation with partners such as QuanStar and Microsoft, Manakoa will see positive cashflow.
PRESIDENT: Jim Katzaroff
CEO: Dr. G. Robert Williams
Investor Relations
Investor Inquiries
mail@manakoa.com -or- 509-736-7000 (alsomail@investorrelationsgroup.com)
Location:
Manakoa Corporation
7203 W. Deschutes Ave. Suite B
Kennewick, Washington 99336
United States
Phone: 509 736 7000
Fax: 509 736 7001
Info: info@manakoa.com
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