Our approach adapts the risk exposure calculator in Robert Simons’ Harvard Business Review article “How Risky is Your Company.” We built out the culture component enabling a complete assessment of a company’s commitment to risk management. Our experience tells us that companies with a measurably strong risk culture can deploy a control infrastructure not only less elaborate, but more targeted and efficient. In essence, if executives are risk managers then the company manages risk well. But how do you know if the C-level crowd is committed? Our self-assessment tool provides a more objective process for determining an organization’s cultural investment in risk management. It also points to possible cultural and control weaknesses. Changing controls does require understanding the tradeoffs involved. For example, centralized decision making frequently lowers risk exposure, but often at the expense of less market agility and innovation. And yes, you may find your firm is too conservative and risk adverse, leading to underperformance. Click below to download your free one-page risk culture self-assessment tool.
And click here if you need help with scoring and interpreting the results, or would like to have further discussions on building a better risk environment.