There is no doubt that risk management failed at many of the companies that have been headline news recently. As a result, the expectations of regulators and investors are increasing, and with that, the oversight responsibilities of directors and officers. S&P, the SEC, and Congress have all commented on and unveiled specific plans for how to improve overall risk management in public companies.
Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is often described as the structured approach to establishing the appropriate level of oversight and control to effectively and efficiently identify, evaluate, and manage risk, consistent with senior management and the Board’s established “risk appetite.” An effective ERM program enables the board and senior management to better understand the complexities of the environment in which they operate.
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Consider this...
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If you received this letter from an analyst, auditor, prospective new board member, shareholder, or regulator...could you answer it?
If not, what should you be doing to prepare?
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For middle-market companies, employing a practical, lean approach to mitigating, monitoring, and managing those risks is crucial to survival and success. What you don’t need is a thick guidebook on risk or a complex consulting framework.
J.H. Cohn helps companies’ boards and senior management move forward without over-complicating the process. Our Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) professionals will:
1. Guide the board on how to work with management to identify and evaluate major risks.
2. Develop management’s assessment of the company’s ability to manage those risks.
3. Help your company determine the risks it can accept and those it cannot.
4. Link and embed this process into existing management discussions and reporting.
5. Show you how to use the output to update the external and internal communication strategies and disclosures.
Given the nature of the issues at hand, J.H. Cohn’s senior partners will lead the engagement. We’ll do it quickly, with minimal disruption to your organization.
J.H. Cohn’s GRC team has the practical experience to help you rapidly develop your ERM programs to protect directors and officers and to improve risk oversight.
- You can leverage our extensive database of risks and measurement tools to improve the identification and assessment process.
- Our senior team will facilitate the design of your program, the collection and analysis of data, and help you structure it for decision making by directors and officers. Unlike what you might have seen from the Big Four or heard from the Wall Street banks, we don’t suggest you fall in love with modeling the numbers or with the process itself and forget why you’re doing this.
Implementing the current best practices in risk management demonstrates good business judgment, which helps directors prove their duty of care has been met.
Make 2010 the year you take the bold step forward on risk management.