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Board Matters
Case Study - Risk Aware Working
The problem
An
investment firm had made a bad overseas judgement, which had resulted in a
change in senior management and a regulatory fine. A few years later they were
still not sure the appropriate risk awareness was in place. The problem was perceived
to be that there was no one view held across the firm, some being over-cautious
for fear of replicating the investment problem again and other newer staff not
understanding there had ever been an issue.
The
CRO and FD had attended the Beyond the Risk Register – behavioural risk
briefing and saw great possibilities with embedding that learning in their
business.
The solution
We
proposed an embedding risk-aware working programme:
Stage
1: Interview based research to understand people’s current perceptions
Stage 2: Design of a specific workshop programme with bespoke case studies to
be rolled out throughout the organisation
Stage 3: Identification and running of test workshop with an ‘early adopter’
group, with feedback
Stage 4: Modification and rollout to 100 key staff
Stage 5: Workshop/briefing to the Executive
Stage 6: Briefing and summary of results to the Risk Committee
The
interviews brought up several themes, including predominantly a fear of
recreating the problem that had lost the firm money and created regulatory
censure.
We
included the themes in our early adopter workshop alongside some real case
studies for them to work through in the session so that they created a sensible
way forward in line with the CRO’s thinking and the Board’s risk appetite.
Following the workshop we reviewed feedback and slightly adjusted the case
studies before rolling the workshop out to 100 key members of staff and the
executive.
The results
The
CRO was delighted with how insightful the interviews had been and said that
even if they got no further results this alone was worth the programme. The
insights continued throughout the process, with even the most cynical stopping
and thinking in a more risk-aware way due to the workshops.
Six
months on everything has changed at the firm and continues to evolve positively.