Only about half of the world's largest corporations were well prepared for the current economic and financial turmoil, according to an Accenture survey of C-level executives at more 250 of the world's largest enterprises. Those surveyed also anticipate new risk challenges ahead, primarily from the new regulations. This combination should spell significant opportunities for consultants in the coming years.
Specifically, the Accenture survey found:
- Most large companies do not have adequate risk management capabilities given today's challenges. But they are increasing their internal investments in risk management.
- Many executives say their goal is to better align risk management with the overall business strategy and to drive more effective collaboration with business units. In addition, large companies say they also need help using risk management to improve objective setting and performance management. Roughly half (48 percent) of these large enterprises already buy into the idea that more integrated risk management programs will lead to enhanced profitability and sustainability. While firms will still have to prove their expertise and value, clients are increasingly predisposed to the idea that risk management is an investment and not simply an insurance-like expense.
- Companies fully expect that the costs of effective risk management will in-crease. To help offset some costs, expect firms like Accenture to push to outsource parts of risk management efforts. Accenture highlights that 63 percent of those surveyed said they'd consider outsourcing some processes, such as: application development of expert tools, IT infrastructure of risk management, and hosting/maintenance of risk related reporting tools and data warehousing.
—Jess Scheer
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