When discussing his possible return to KPMG in 2003, Steven Hill asked why the firm wanted him back.  The question was a good one. After all, the Sarbanes-Oxley compliance wave was surging at the time - so why would KPMG need a Bearing Point senior vice president and former McKinsey consultant whose pedigree consisted of value creation?

“As we answered that question together, we agreed that SOX brought much more to the marketplace than simply an exercise to establish greater rigor in financial reporting,” recalls Hill, who worked for the firm prior to the Bearing Point spinoff. “Yes, the SOX legislation calls for the articulation of a controls portfolio, but that is superficial in my opinion.” Rather, Hill believes that the new rules helped spur a “paradoxical change” in the way executives look at managing the business.

“That’s where our firm differs from other firms,” he adds. “It’s not about what comes after compliance as much as it is about addressing a larger question: How does the notion of control and risk blend into the business-change conversation from this point onward?”

Hill, KPMG’s national principal-in-charge of services, outlined the answer in a 2005 whitepaper, “The Compliance Journey,” that presaged the rise of enterprise risk management and strategic risk initiatives currently under way at numerous corporations. He identifies risk and control as the “fourth dimension” that business leaders need to pay attention to every bit as carefully as people, process and technology when launching major changes.

“The real magic to getting it right is not to think of [risk and control] as a liability that drags along the back end of a decision-making process,” Hill explains. “Look at the control and risk discussion and ask, ‘How does it empower my ability to improve my business?’ I don’t think other firms are saying it’s a fourth dimension of change included in all of the things you do. I think KPMG is unique in the way we describe this.”

The distinction appears a valuable one. Hill has helped lead the advisory practice to double-digit growth during the past three-plus years since re-joining KPMG.