Very curious about the psychology of
Would you have a different answer to your organization's top 5 risks if you were asked formally by the Board as opposed to informally by your CEO?
Answers
A request from the Board would be answered with the top 5 Risks to the company. While a request by the CEO would be answered with the top 5 Risks for every department. The CEO list would be a subset of issues that are covered in the Board list. The reason for the difference relates to their area of responsibility. It is not uncommon for a company to establish company focused
No...the top five risks to the company are the top 5 regardless of forum or degree of formality.
Accountants spend a lot of time thinking about risk management but it is rare that finance can implement action around risk management. Risk management is often something that is seen as administrative so it gets put off unless there is a regulation or law that requires it. Even the threat of lost data is not enough to establish a risk plan.
One of the risks is actually not planning to reduce risks and threats.
Preaching preparation tends to have the same effect as nagging.
Charles,
I agree with Barrett. Frankly, if there are different answers for those two audiences, you have discovered another risk!
As the owner of my company's global risk assessment process (not the owner of risk mitigation... a very different responsibility/task), I view the integrity-through-transparency rule leads to the healthiest and most productive discussion between company leaders and their board members to solve for the biggest risks.
Happy to share insights on risk assessment and management if you like.
Best,
Glenn
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