Category Archives: Risk Management

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RIMS ERM Conference 2021: IRS Receives Global Enterprise Risk Management Award of Distinction

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On Friday, RIMS President Ellen Dunkin presented the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with the 2021 Global Enterprise Risk Management Award of Distinction at the Society’s ERM Conference in New York City. The honor recognized the IRS’s outstanding achievements that allow it to anticipate emerging risks and establish the appropriate culture, processes and structures to strengthen strategic decision-making. 

Navigating the impacts of an extended government shutdown, sweeping tax reforms, operational disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic and providing essential financial relief to thousands of businesses and individuals across the United States, the IRS ERM program helped the agency to remain resilient and effectively manage a multitude of dynamic challenges.

“Through the ERM program’s focus on embedding risk management capabilities into the existing structures and operations, the agency has become more risk aware,” said Jeffrey Tribiano, the IRS’s deputy commissioner for operations support. “There is also greater collaboration across the enterprise to address significant risks that require efforts from multiple business units. By effectively highlighting the enterprise-wide effects of risks, and by capturing risks on the enterprise risk profile, ERM has helped garner agency-wide attention and support for measures to help address the risks. Since IRS established its ERM program in 2014, it has played a critical role in helping the agency to better understand and respond to risk, thus making the organization more resilient and better able to serve the American people.” 

This year, RIMS honored three other organizations for their exceptional accomplishments developing, implementing and maturing ERM within their organizations. Honorees included:

  • 2021 RIMS Global ERM Award of Distinction Honorable Mention: Dallas Fort Worth International Airport
  • 2021 RIMS ERM Award of Distinction–U.S. Honoree: Eversource Energy
  • 2021 RIMS ERM Award of Distinction–International Honoree: EuroChem

“Enterprise risk management continues to deliver exceptional value to organizations, allowing them to successfully address emerging risks while also identifying and leveraging opportunities that might not have otherwise been apparent,” Dunkin said. “Risk professionals get better—and deliver better results—by learning from each other. We are so grateful to the IRS and all of honorees for sharing their ERM journeys with the RIMS community and doing their part to advance this rewarding profession.” 

Judging criteria for the Global ERM Award of Distinction include measurable, tangible and sustainable results; unique program strengths; ERM innovation that links risk with strategy or performance; and the program’s ability to build sustaining risk management capabilities. The panel comprises members of RIMS Strategic and Enterprise Risk Management Council.

RIMS ERM Conference 2021 was held November 11-12 in New York City and virtually. The program themed “ERM in an ESG World” focused on the growing risks stemming from environmental, social and governance challenges.

RIMS ERM Conference 2021: Introducing the New RIMS Maturity Model

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This morning at the two-day RIMS ERM Conference 2021, attendees got a “sneak preview” of the new RIMS Risk Maturity Model, presented by Carol Fox, former RIMS vice president of strategic initiatives, and Tom Easthope of Microsoft’s enterprise risk management team. RIMS decided to “reboot” the Risk Maturity Model, Fox said, since the original model was launched in 2006, and the field of risk management had changed quite a bit in the years since, as had the world in general.

Easthope outlined how the new Risk Maturity Model was “designed by practitioners, for practitioners” with input from peers, pundits, academics and critics, to show what success looks like in mature organizations. To achieve this, the new model focuses on how advanced an organization’s risk management capabilities are, not necessarily whether the organization had performed specific actions, as the previous model stressed.

Fox told the audience, which attended in person and tuned in online, that the new Risk Maturity Model was built to “grow as the profession grows,” and outlined its five pillars:

  1. Strategy Alignment: Risk related to strategy can lead to riches or ruin.
  2. Culture and Accountability: Culture and accountability drive action.
  3. Risk Management Capabilities: Risk management capabilities encompass more than proficiencies in a single process.
  4. Risk Governance: Integrated governance leads to performance improvements.
  5. Analytics: Analytics are the engines to inform decision making and influence action.

The model is also customizable for each individual organization’s goals and context. When answering the model’s questions, risk managers will have the opportunity to specify their organization’s target on each metric. Success is then measured along five tiers, with Tier 1 being “No formal capacity in place” and Tier 5 indicating that “Capability exists in a continuous improving cycle, informed by internal/external inputs.” The model will not only give a score, but also provide risk managers next steps to help them advance their programs to the next level.

A presentation slide titled "Differentiating the Five Tiers," outlining the five tiers of the model's potential results.

As more people enter data and use the model, risk managers will be able to compare their own performance against that of other organizations and industries—though the presenters stressed that the data provided will be anonymized to both users and the researchers behind the scenes. Companies will also be able to access reports on different respondents across departments to see how answers differed within the organization.

The presenters extended an invitation to participate in the next phase of testing and to give feedback. The goal, they said, is for the model to reflect the reality of risk management today and to “evolve with the world that we live in.” Beta testing is slated to begin in December and to get involved, interested risk managers can contact the organization through the RIMS app, get in touch with Fox and Easthope via LinkedIn, or email RIMS vice president of strategic initiatives Soraya Wright.

This session and many others from the conference can be viewed on-demand online after the event.

RIMS ERM Conference 2021: Lloyd’s Chairman on the Vital Role of Risk Management in Fighting Climate Change

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With climate change quickly becoming one of the most important issues facing the world, Lloyd’s Chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown stressed the importance of ESG initiatives to address the threat, as well as the vital role of risk managers, in today’s keynote address at the RIMS ERM Conference 2021 in New York City.

As evidenced by the increasing number of weather and climate-related natural disasters in recent years, the stakes couldn’t be higher for organizations and communities around the world, according to Carnegie-Brown. “Disruption, poorly managed, could destabilize our economy,” he said.

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“Delay could destroy our ecosystem.”

Failing to take action on the climate change threat is not a sustainable strategy and will only exacerbate the damage in the future, Carnegie-Brown warned. In the face of these threats, risk managers have an important role to play in helping their organizations embrace ESG and become more resilient. “A business’s risk operations are an essential component of building ESG into the organization—often they are the driving force.

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” he said. “Executives rely on their insight to power their decisions and navigate the pitfalls of new challenges. Like insurance, it enables braver decisions and more courageous action. Communicated effectively, that insight can establish a permanent place at the table for risk management.”

To be most effective, Carnegie-Brown suggested that risk managers play close attention to how they are perceived and how they interact with the rest of the organization. “If risk managers are perceived as being reactive, we need to make sure we are on the front-foot in understanding and assessing these emerging issues,” he said. “If we’re perceived as operating in the shadows, we need to be transparent in our methodology and in our motives. And if we’re perceived as obstructive, we should consider a flexible approach that allows our organizations to act innovatively and with an awareness of the potential risk.”

While it represents a daunting challenge, Carnegie-Brown saw an opportunity for risk managers to demonstrate their value by taking on the difficult task of developing organization-wide plans to address climate change. “Those plans must account for the multifaceted nature of environmental risk, they must employ the best of our skills and technologies to communicate the risk to our stakeholders, and they must be built to facilitate and orderly and urgent transition,” he said.

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“Achieving this will allow us to carve out a pioneering role for risk management in the fight against climate change, while helping our organizations to become more inviting to investors, more attractive to prospective employees, and more likely to last sustainably in the decades to come.”

RIMS ERM Conference 2021: A Case-Study Approach to “Solve Any DEI Issue in One Hour”

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At today’s RIMS ERM Conference 2021, a hybrid event with in-person experiences in New York City and virtual content online, many of the presenters focused on the intersection of ERM (enterprise risk management) with other mission-critical three-letter topics, including ESG (environmental, social and governance) and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion).

In one of the afternoon’s sessions, “Identify and Solve Any Organizational DEI Issue In One Hour,” presenter Layne Kertamus, professional in residence of risk management and insurance at Utah Valley University, explored “new ways to talk about what needs to be said, and what needs to be listened to.”

“Most organizations that I’m aware of have moved past the idea that they have to do something on [DEI] issues for our stakeholders—it has moved on to ‘We cannot afford to not have some real results in these arenas’ and that should be motivation enough, if we needed any motivation,” Kertamus said. “The issue will not go away and it will evolve. Hopefully we can find a way to make this not just a prompt for change, but a real asset.”

Kertamus noted the particular challenges of the “frozen middle” in implementing meaningful DEI initiatives. Middle management feels pressure from both above and below to take DEI action, and “may react to hearing these goals with concern or dread—for example, thinking ‘My status and opportunities may now be more limited than they were before.’”

With the “why” and other background largely established, Kertamus focused the session on one approach to the “how” of DEI-related change. While many DEI discussions start with general open forums and reminders about being respectful and open, he noted that some of these approaches may lead to inauthentic or surface-level outcomes. To really get into an authentic plan that gains acceptance, Kertamus said, “sometimes we need to create environments where we can talk the way we need to talk.”

He proposed that organizations adopt a case study method to facilitate some of these discussions, outlining the “one hour” from his session’s title:

  • With this method, a “case presenter” brings their concern, challenge or passion to present a large-scale DEI-related issue in the workplace that impacts other stakeholders. A facilitator should be selected and need not be an expert, but must bring an open mind and a willingness to enforce time limits. A group of “peer consultants” is then gathered from across the company, perhaps at different levels or in different departments.
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  • First, the group listens to a five minute presentation from the case presenter, and then spends 10 minutes asking fact-based questions directed through the facilitator.
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    It is critical that the questions are directed and perhaps even pointed, but be focused on facts and not opinions or defenses.
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  • The largest segment of the process is a group diagnostic session, spending 20 minutes examining what, if anything, the presenter may have left out, may have ignored as a result of their own lived experience, or other gaps in the issue. It is critical not to jump to solutions in this phase—you may get “answers,” but the purpose here is true diagnosis.
  • The next 10 minutes should be spent on group action brainstorming, brainstorming solutions for the presenter, embracing all perspectives and bringing personal experience, values, and insight to the table. “Be willing to give the presenter bad news, if necessary,” Kertamus urged. For example, you may need to acknowledge that there is no solution, or that they missed a strategic opportunity along the way. The presenter should remain quiet and listen during this step.
  • Next, the presenter gets 10 minutes to respond to the discussion, speaking candidly and asking questions after listening to the group’s brainstorming session. “This can be a defensive time, they may feel beat up, but it can also be an opportunity for real connection, understanding, and for making agreements and commitments moving forward,” he said.
  • If agreements are made, one question is critical before adjourning: “When will you move forward using action steps recommended today?” This can be a critical moment in advancing concrete plans and changes in attitude or approach to DEI in the workplace.

While this approach can be used with a wide range of issues as the focus “case,” Kertamus noted it is particularly useful with “problems where someone cannot just use their authority to impose a change or solution,” for example, a leader who has tried to implement changes and build equity and inclusion as values in a department but keeps meeting resistance. “This is really for instances where you accept the mission of the organization and want to make it real or palpable, but cannot just impose it, you need to open other dialogues,” he said.

If you are not attending the RIMS ERM Conference 2021 live this week, “Identify and Solve Any Organizational DEI Issue In One Hour” and other sessions from the event will be available to stream online during the event or later on-demand.