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Poole College of Management
Enterprise Risk Management Initiative

Emerging Risks

Paula Herman

Feb 10, 2022

Managing Talent and Culture Risks

Paula Herman of Mecklenburg County Government shares insights about her views of the kinds of big-picture risks concerns for most organizations.

Feb 9, 2022

Strengthening Enterprise Agility for a Crisis: Lessons Learned

The COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges and necessary changes for all organizations. To support rapid change, many entities adopted agile business practices. A team of experts from McKinsey and the Harvard Business School analyzed the experiences of agile or partially agile companies during the crisis and provide insights around which elements of their operating models proved most useful in practice. To carry forward the lessons learned by agile organizations and to support success in the "new normal," the experts present a three-step guide to fully embracing an operating-model shift to agile practices.

Feb 8, 2022

How to Adapt to Thrive in the New Normal

Shocks like economic recessions and global pandemics can result in long-lasting behavioral changes that impact businesses. The Covid-19 pandemic is the most recent reminder that companies prepared to reassess their opportunities, adapt their business models and reallocate investments amid a crisis are the winners.

Feb 8, 2022

Imagining Unimaginable Risks

Risks take a variety of forms, many of which companies can proactively manage. But novel risks are much more difficult to predict and plan for and they may seem improbable, emerge from a perfect storm of events, or are unprecedentedly massive. In their 2020 Harvard Business Review article, "The Risks You Can't Foresee," authors Robert S. Kaplan, Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard and Annette Mikes define novel risks and then describe how to detect and respond to them to mitigate the risk impact on the business.

Feb 8, 2022

Six Practices to Future-Proof Your Company

As companies rebuild their workforces in the aftermath of Covid-19, they must move into the digital age to future-proof their operations and give them a competitive advantage. A recent Harvard Business Review article, "Future-Proofing Your Organization," draws on research by Bain & Company involving more than 300 large firms in every sector of the global economy. The authors identify six recommended practices for companies to follow as they recover from the pandemic to create technology-enabled workforces for future success.

Feb 8, 2022

Board Oversight of ESG and Diversity Risks

PwC's 2021 Annual Corporate Directors Survey gauges the views of public company directors across the United States. The survey results reveal the significant impact of the social, environmental and economic pressures companies have faced in recent years, including new risks for boards to address. The PwC report also sheds light on the changes boards are making in response to the dynamic environment.

Dec 9, 2021

REPORT: Executive Perspectives on Top Risks for 2022 & 2031

Executive Perspectives on Top Risks is an annual survey report that assesses the concerns of 1,453 board members and executives globally.

Expert ERM Interview

Oct 6, 2021

New Resources: ERM Tools & Techniques

The ERM Initiative interviews John Fraser, Rob Quail and Betty Simkins about the 2nd edition of Enterprise Risk Management: Today’s Leading Research and Best Practices for Tomorrow’s Executives.

Sep 21, 2021

Is Your Company’s Knowledge Walking Out the Door with Your Retirees?

A conversation about the risk of knowledge loss often is centered around a technology concern evoking thoughts of cyber breaches that release proprietary information, an operational matter considering outsourcing or the one that I will discuss, a people or talent discussion. This article discusses how knowledge loss from employee attrition can be reduced through effective knowledge management and knowledge transfer practices.

Jun 17, 2020

ISO’s Risk Management Framework

ISO’s Risk Management-Guidelines is a widely embraced framework for implementing ERM in any type of organization.  Issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), ISO 31000:2018 provides guidelines on managing risks to help business leaders create and protect entity value through the management of risks in the context of decision making. The Framework bases the management of risks on principles, a framework, and process.