In the video below from Mash Risk Television, Brian Barnier of ValueBridge Investors discusses the difficulty that organizations, specifically financial firms, have in moving from compliance-based view of risk to an operational-based view.

It’s an understandable hurdle considering how many companies only started thinking about some of this stuff systematically as a result of Basel II or Sarbanes-Oxley and thus view the whole endeavor as little more than a useless burden to check off a series of boxes. Organizations just don’t see the value. Even in 2011, after the largest financial meltdown since the Great Depression, too many companies still can’t find the tangible, bottom-line benefits of instituting a worthwhile risk management system that views meeting regulatory requirements as a starting point rather than an end goal. Which is a shame.

Because as Barnier gets at in the video, those companies that can’t start thinking about risk management as a key driver in overall performance are probably going to find themselves behind the curve pretty soon. Plenty of other companies are already doing it — and in the process, fortifying their earnings against potential threats.