ERM News - KPMG Offers Global Risk Survey of Over 1,000 Executives
KPMG Publishes Its 2013 Global Risk Survey of Over 1,000 C-Suite Executives. The Survey Offers Interesting Insights into the World of Risk Management.
In KPMG's latest survey they found "Risk management is at the top of the global executive agenda as companies face an array of threats that grow more complex by the day. The risks are multitudinous and ever-present, and those companies that fail to manage them well imperil their future. Many risks are posed by the challenge of complying with complicated, new government regulations drafted worldwide in the wake of the financial crisis, affecting all industries. The global economy remains fragile, the Eurozone wracked by a series of crises. Economic growth in the developed world is weak and faster-growing emerging markets are unfamiliar to many corporate executives. At the same time, companies have to contend with increasing competition, rapid technological change and the battle for talent." Eight key areas emerged from their survey including:
- Risk management is widely seen as a high priority among companies surveyed, but only 66 percent build it into strategic planning decisions often or constantly.
- Most companies surveyed do not have a consistent way of assessing risk across the enterprise.
- Less than a fifth of companies surveyed have developed a formal risk appetite statement.
- The top risk perceived by senior executives is the growing regulatory pressure from governments around the world.
- Respondents say the business units (the first line of defense) are more adept than the risk and compliance specialists (the second line), as well as internal audit (the third), in assessing and managing risk.
- Forty-two percent of respondents say that a lack of skills is the main obstacle to the convergence or integration of risk and control functions in companies.
- Survey respondents admit they need to do more to motivate business managers to make risk-aware decisions by linking their performance in this area to compensation.
- Many companies understand some, or all, of these problems and are investing in ways to upgrade their risk management. Yet more than a quarter of respondents have no means of measuring the return for the investment and a similar proportion is simply reviewing past events to assess the effectiveness of their risk controls.