Is Enterprise Risk Management losing ground and is its mandate threatened?
With repeated crises in the financial markets and companies from various sources raising significant questions about the predictive reliability of risk models and the effectiveness of key controls in mitigating losses, there is a cacophony of opinion emerging that risk management itself may not be all it’s cracked up to be. Add to that criticism of the concept that the broader, more holistic approach to managing risk–enterprise risk management–is the more correct risk strategy for progressive companies, which leaves management and governance with questions that demand answers. I would suggest, however, that this emerging notion that ERM may not be meeting expectations and may be on the way out is much-contrived and more than a bit overblown. In fact, while ERM may be at a crossroads of sorts, it is, at worst, one approach that provides a greater, more significant opportunity to make a difference. One example is the fact that Standard & Poor’s Corp. has recently confirmed that it will
