Special report
Perspectives on the future of risk The risk profession is at a crossroads according to leading stakeholders. In the first of a two-part report on the IRM’s Risk Agenda 2025 initiative, we look at what key industry professionals say about the future BY ARTHUR PIPER
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or risk professionals, it is both the best of times and the worst of times. The best, because in many organisations risk is now highly valued and resourced. Chief risk officers work closely with the board and executive management on strategic, operational and emerging risk projects. And new technological tools promise to help risk managers see trends and threats earlier and in more detail. The worst, because the profession could be relegated to a back-office compliance function. If heads of risk fail to deliver the value their businesses expect, they face being replaced by automated systems with risk leaders remote from the board and decreasingly relevant. The stakeholders taking part in the IRM’s recent Risk Agenda 2025 report Perspectives on the future of risk were both supportive of risk professionals and cautiously optimistic. But all saw the need for improved performance from risk departments if the potential benefits of future risk management practice were to be achieved by 2025. Mark Brown, vice president of software solutions and services at Sword Active Risk – the project’s technology
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Above: Perspectives on the future of risk report.
Enterprise Risk