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Poole College of Management
Enterprise Risk Management Initiative

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Feb 1, 2017

Enterprise Risk Intelligence and its Importance

Enterprise risk intelligence represents the knowledge required to appropriately and successfully apply an enterprise risk management (ERM) program. ERM programs have many known benefits; however, too few organizations successfully utilize risk programs. This article discusses the importance and benefits of ERM and follows with a study discussing why ERM today is immature, the barriers against implementing ERM, and solutions to deploy ERM.

Nov 29, 2016

Five Recurring Themes for Enhancing Risk Oversight

Article by Mark S. Beasley: Over the past month I have had the opportunity to meet and talk with a number of risk management executives who have engaged with us at our ERM Initiative Advisory Board meeting, our ERM Roundtable Summit, and our inaugural ERM in Higher Education workshop, and I have traveled to Europe to participate in ERM conferences there. In all these experiences I have observed a number of common themes related to opportunities to strengthen ERM processes. These opportunities seem to transcend organizational size, industry, and geographic location. Let me highlight five challenges that ERM leaders view as opportunities to strengthen the value of their organization's ERM efforts.

Jan 20, 2016

A Risk Manager’s Role in Strategic Leadership

A misalignment of risk priorities often exists between the risk manager and the executive decision makers. What can risk managers do to help them establish their significance and contribution to the organization? As in almost any emerging field, risk management requires effective communication and robust contribution from all parties in order to extract the most value for the organization.

Oct 26, 2015

A Chief Compliance Officer’s Role in Risk Management

Risks, rules, and regulations: Can today's chief compliance officers keep up? It is commonly known that a company's ability to assess and manage risks to meet stakeholder expectations may ultimately determine the success or failure of an organization. Deloitte and Compliance Week, in their collaborative efforts, have administered a survey to annually assess corporate America's ability to keep up with these rising expectations and to address issues and concerns resulting from current trends.

Jan 1, 2014

The Importance of Integrating Risk Management with Strategy

A recent thought paper, 10 Lessons in Integrating Risk Management with Strategy by Protiviti uses examples of both corporate failures and successes to learn what helped those that survived and thrived reach different outcomes than those that failed and disappeared. The thought paper provides lessons learned as well as tools and techniques executives can use to improve their company’s chances of surviving and thriving in an ever-changing world. The thought paper finds that surviving and thriving companies were able to respond to a pending crisis because they integrate risk into their strategic discussions, allowing them to react quickly enough to take advantage of emerging opportunities.

Nov 1, 2013

Create Synergies between Risk Management and Internal Audit

Companies are always scanning the business landscape for the next way to get ahead, to gain a competitive advantage, and to take the next step, particularly in the area of risk management. Most companies have some form of risk management, whether the traditional silos or the more robust enterprise risk management, and their purpose ranges from protecting assets to pursuing opportunities. These same companies often have an over-looked, or at least underutilized asset, in their internal audit function. Internal audit understands the business operations and controls; however, they share a common goal with risk management, which is to improve the effectiveness of risk management. This common goal leads to a potential synergy that can help a company reach that next step in risk management. The Risk Insurance Management Society ("RIMS") and The Institute of Internal Auditors ("IIA") joint white paper highlights the why, the how, and the proof that leveraging your internal audit function in risk management can not only work, but work well.

Nov 1, 2013

Collaborative Risk Management Fundamentals

Over the last decade, a number of organizations have embraced the concept of enterprise risk management (ERM) as a way to strengthen their oversight of the most significant risks to their business. Fortunately, many of realized a number of benefits from an enterprise-wide analysis of their most significant risks, while others unfortunately have experienced frustration in their ERM efforts. A recent thought paper by the Arthur J. Gallagher Think Tank for Higher Education Risk Management highlights common reasons for ERM failure and it identifies common factors associated with entities who are finding value in their ERM efforts. The paper emphasizes the value of strengthened collaboration across the management team as one of the keys to ERM success. The paper calls on organizations to distinguish between risk management as a one-time function performed singlehandedly, and the process of managing risk, which involves collaborative effort and embedded process throughout the organization.

Jun 19, 2013

Risk Culture’s Critical Role in ERM

Enterprise risk management is a matter of business process, but it is important to remember the part that people play in implementing ERM. An organization’s “risk culture,” the way an organization’s personnel collectively view, communicate about, and respond to risk, can make or break an otherwise well-designed ERM process. In this May 2013 article from McKinsey & Company, authors Alexis Krivkovich and Cindy Levy discuss risk culture and its critical role in effective ERM. The authors describe the key characteristics of a healthy risk culture, and they also highlight two challenges that organizations must be mindful of in developing risk culture

Feb 13, 2013

Strengthening the Role of the Chief Risk Officer in an Organization

The role of chief risk officer (CRO) has been put under a microscope to understand methods and key success factors that can enhance the role. Organizations now, more than ever before, are appointing CROs to improve their risk function and better manage potential risks that could impede their strategy. To achieve that, the CRO must be placed in a position that is fundamental as well as instrumental in the decision-making and strategy-setting process. This Protiviti white paper provides six key critical success factors that organizations should be aware of and promote to ensure that their organization is in a better risk management position than in the past.

May 1, 2012

Lack of Senior Manager Support Impairs Risk Management

Here's a new twist to "risk management" one of the most damaging risks an organization may face is "management" itself. The article "Risky Management" in Disaster Recovery Journal highlights the realities of how management's attitude and embrace of risk management approaches can undermine the organization's effectiveness at managing key risk events. Although many executives understand that risk management benefits everyone, not all share this view. The article outlines three categories of management that have a negative effect on an enterprise's risk management strategies: management that ignores reasoned words, management that works against others' efforts and management that is nonexistent in the execution of a plan.