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Poole College of Management
Enterprise Risk Management Initiative

Briefs and Insights

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.

Jan 1, 2014

Six Recommendations to Improve Board Risk Oversight

The financial crisis and subsequent performance failures, including bankruptcy, has resulted in a bright spotlight on boards for a number of organizations in regards to their effectiveness - and lack thereof - in risk oversight. Scrutiny has increased from regulators and other key stakeholders calling on boards to ensure their risk oversight efforts are strengthened. A recent Deloitte thought paper offers six recommendations that boards may want to consider to strengthen the board's overall risk intelligence.

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.

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.

Sep 1, 2013

Preparing for a Black Swan Event

Black Swan events are traditionally thought to be rare, random, and high-impact events, but recent history suggests that Black Swan events are happening more frequently while maintaining their unpredictability and catastrophic characteristics. A recent thought paper by Ernst & Young explains the benefit of preparing for a Black Swan event, identifies broad-based principles to implement prior to an event, and describes protocols to follow when responding to the event. Due to a Black Swan’s unpredictability, a flexible and broad-based approach to prepare and respond to such an event is necessary to mitigate its impact and facilitate a speedy recovery. The paper provides valuable insights to help your enterprise prepare for the unexpected.

Jun 19, 2013

ERP Implementation Risk: Managing Sources of Project Delays and Other Risk

Over the past two decades, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have allowed managers to utilize software to integrate information about projects across the enterprise. These systems are designed to integrate internal and external information, enhance the flow of communication and decision-making across an enterprise, and focus on business processes and functions. However, integrating information about operations all across an enterprise to make information more accessible and flow via an ERP system presents a number of significant risks. If issues arise at inopportune moments, they are compounded due to the interrelated nature of an ERP system. Protiviti developed a whitepaper that identifies and reiterates the importance of mitigating these risks to reduce post-implementation project costs.

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

Jun 11, 2013

Focusing on Property Risk Management

Risk events such as fires, adverse weather conditions, and terrorist attacks can have devastating effects on an organization's facilities and physical infrastructure. If ineffectively managed, core operations can be paralyzed, assets can be destroyed, and key IP may be compromised. In May 2013, Advisen Ltd. conducted a large survey of risk managers and property brokers in order to gain perspective on the status of property risk management efforts among businesses operating in the United States and abroad. The survey asked questions around two main themes: 1) what are companies doing, if anything, to specifically manage threats to the physical property and resources of the business, and 2) what are the key characteristics and practices of successful property risk managers? This white paper provides an overview of the survey and its results, which may provide useful benchmarking data for risk leaders.

Apr 1, 2013

Five Basics to Managing Innovation Risk

As organizations seek growth through value creation, they often invest in research and development to generate innovations that can propel significant changes and new demand in the marketplace. In the rush to capitalize on the benefits of emerging innovations, organizations often rush to the market based without thinking through the limitations in the models upon which they have based their decision to act. Said differently, innovation carries risks that need to adequately evaluated. A recent Harvard Business Review article by Nobel prize winner, Robert Merton proposes that businesses should adopt five rules of thumb before haphazardly introducing innovations into the market.

Apr 1, 2013

Crowdsourcing, A Tool to Tackle Emerging Strategic Risks

Organizations are turning to “crowdsourcing” as part of their innovation strategy where they leverage the knowledge of “the crowd” to identify emerging trends and opportunities. A recent article in _Harvard Business Review_ highlights crowdsourcing as a problem solving technique. We use that as a springboard to explore how crowdsourcing might be used to leverage the collective talent of the crowd to help organizations deter or manage emerging risks that may affect their strategic success. Crowdsourcing may be a tool that risk leaders can include in their risk identification toolkits.