3 minute read
IRM Focus
Research roundup
A range of recent and forthcoming projects by IRM and its partners are helping risk managers tackle the pressing issues of today, says Carolyn Williams
IRM and its members are at the forefront of promoting research and insight into various aspects of risk management, working with a variety of partners around the world. Over the past few months, there have been a number of valuable publications and round-table discussions that can help members deepen their understanding and practices in a range of areas.
How to hire a great chief risk officer: recruitment expert Ulrich Seega looks at the changing role of the CRO, how to identify the key skills and attributes (using IRM’s professional standards) and how to undertake an effective recruitment and assessment process. “The aim of this guidance was to bring together today’s best practice in recruitment with the specialist technical knowledge about risk management offered by IRM,” Seega said. “Organisations today are looking for CROs who display not only technical expertise at the highest level but also the appropriate behavioural characteristics relating to matters like change and leadership. This guidance will help organisations define what they need and how to go about finding it.”
This document has also been translated into German: https://bit.ly/2HRqRdX
IRM’s partnership with the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies has resulted in two recent publications launched at 2019’s Risk Leaders conference. Stress testing companies in the energy value chain and Risk management for the consumer sectors look at a scenario-based approach to identifying risk in the energy and consumer sectors respectively, including the concept of a “digital twin” for testing scenario outturns. https://bit.ly/32kWMgc | https://bit.ly/2wIKjaA
Risk, science and decision-making: how should risk leaders of the future work with AI? Working with leading leadership consultants Egon Zehnder, IRM brought together a group of chief risk officers, leading academics and risk thinkers for a round-table discussion on the topic of artificial intelligence and its impact on the risk landscape, led by Professor Sir Adrian Smith from The Alan Turing Institute. “Risk professionals are going to need to rely on a range of expert advisors when working with AI, going forwards, but will also need to develop skills and expertise themselves,” Iain Wright, CFIRM, IRM chair said. “Reassuringly, it doesn’t look like the role of a CRO will be replaced by an AI black box but, while risk leaders won’t need to be deep experts in the field, they will need to have multidisciplinary training and experience. We can expect CROs to stay involved in deciding risk criteria involving the development and use of AI processes, in which case they will need access to trusted advisors who can translate the concepts”. https://bit.ly/3c3aQzx
Ongoing projects
The risk management landscape in Zimbabwe is a project by the Department of Risk Management and Insurance at the National University Of Science and Technology in Bulawayo, which is supported by IRM in conjunction with our Zimbabwe regional group. The project is looking at the very challenging risk landscape in that country.
The risk management department at the Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan, is researching a guide to ERM for Chinese business: A short guide to enterprise risk management for Chinese organisations, which is expected to be published later in 2020. IRM is also reviewing and updating the Sound Practice Guidance documents published by the Institute of Operational Risk and making them more widely available.
