Skip to main content
Poole College of Management
Enterprise Risk Management Initiative

Briefs and Insights

Apr 22, 2016

Taking a Strategic Approach to Emerging Risks

Bonnie V. Hancock, Executive Director of North Carolina State University's ERM Initiative, addresses techniques that might simplify the process of prioritizing risk.

Apr 1, 2016

Supply Chain Risk Management

Supplier management has recently emerged as an important area for risk management. As globalization has changed the business world drastically this past century, companies now have complex global networks from which they buy and sell products. Given this, Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business conducted research to determine supplier risk management practices. Their findings are based on interviews with 33 companies including KPMG, Johnson & Johnson, Coca Cola, and IBM to name a few. This abstract summarizes some of the key points in this document.

Mar 1, 2016

Cryptocurrency and its Place in the Financial World

Cryptocurrency has been called both the greatest technological breakthrough since the internet and a black hole where consumer dollars simply disappear. On whatever end of the spectrum you fall, the truth of the matter is cryptocurrency is here and it is here to stay. The only question is what form will it adopt and how impactful will it really be? The article, Money is no object: Understanding the evolving cryptocurrency market, attempts to clear up the confusion of crypto currency while simultaneously considering its impact today and in the future.

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.

Nov 11, 2015

A Simpler Way to Assess Risks?

The vast majority of companies assess risks by evaluating both the likelihood that a risk event will occur and the impact of the risk event if it does occur. The actual ranking of risks is then determined by either calculating the product of likelihood x impact scores, or in some cases the sum of a risk's likelihood and impact scores. When using this methodology, the organization must develop rating scales for both likelihood and impact (and any other dimensions to be assessed, such as velocity or preparedness) as well as definitions for each point on the scales.

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.

Oct 1, 2015

Value Creation through Risk Management

Many companies have come to realize that risk management serves more than just a compliance function. In the ever-changing risk environment we live in today, risk management also serves to add value to the company. After conducting their Global Governance, Risk and Compliance Survey, EY published a white paper with a three-step approach to risk management.

Sep 1, 2015

Integrating Sustainability with Enterprise Risk Management

Sustainability policies have a meaningful role in managing risk, and can also promote faster growth. Have you ever heard the saying ‘you have to spend money to make money?’ This remains true for investments in sustainability and risk management - yes, investing money in sustainability and risk management will more than pay for itself. A white paper authored by James Lam and Frances Quinn and published by Workiva highlights the role and benefits sustainability plays in enterprise risk management and explains how to successfully integrate sustainability into the risk management framework.

May 1, 2014

Understanding Risk Appetite

In order for directors to oversee risk management effectively, there must be a clear understanding of what constitutes the organization’s risk appetite. The concept of a risk appetite is fairly new and can be a bit confusing. A recent thought paper by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) seeks to explain risk appetite in “plain English.” The thought paper defines risk appetite, describes how to develop a risk appetite statement, and explains the oversight role of the board in the development of the risk appetite process

Apr 1, 2014

How Global Changes Can Affect the Business Environment

As organizations develop their strategic plans, their horizons are often only looking out over the next two-to-three years. While staying focused on the “here and now” is important, failure to look at broader trends of how the world may be shifting may cause some boards and executive teams to wake up some day in the future to discover their strategies are no longer viable. To help organizations consider how shifts may be on the horizon, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has recently published information about five megatrends that are already changing the business environment. A megatrend is a change on a global scale that is often verified with factual data. In the past few years PwC has noticed that its clients are identifying and changing their strategies because of these megatrends. This article explains each of the five megatrends identified and then highlights possible effects of each trend.