Event - Finding Value in ERM
One of my favorite days of the year has now come and gone - what I fondly call “ERM Day”. I started the event in 2016, sponsored by the Centre for Finance at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, AB Volvo, and SKF (AB Volvo and SKF both funded my postdoc in Gothenburg). Then I met Jennie Wallin (KPMG blog) from KPMG, and it was obvious I needed her talents and networking skills. She joined the “team” for the second event in 2018. By this time, Anna Bonander (I’ll have a future blog about her) had started as ERM Manager at AB Volvo, and she was a huge contributor to the second event as well. This year, my fourth, we added SWERMA (the Swedish Risk Management Association) to the list of coordinators as Jennie Wallin joined their board, and we brought in the help of Ulrich Adamheit, ERM at Vattenfall AB and from the SWERMA board.
This year’s theme was: Finding Value in ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT
We were lucky to have Dr. Mark Beasley, Professor of Enterprise Risk Management and the Director of the ERM Initiative at North Carolina State University, back for a second time! He was also the keynote the first year I organized the event, but our network has grown and many people who hadn’t heard him speak the first year were interested to hear from him. He talked about the growing complexities of uncertainty, the differences in risk perceptions across the organization, and the blind spots that may exist. He suggested five opportunities for teasing out the unknowns: evaluate blind spots of others (it is easier after all to point out what others have done wrong!), assume the role of the competitor, name big assumptions, look for risk opportunities, and embed ERM in strategic initiative analysis. As Mark said in his conclusion – it is on us to demonstrate the value of ERM!
We heard from both the Volvo companies; Volvo AB and Volvo Car AB seized the two top spots on the list of the top twenty companies with the highest turnover in Sweden 2020.
Elisabeth Horbury, Head of Enterprise Risk Management at Volvo Car Corporation, shared with us the way their ERM thoughtfully functions together with Volvo Car’s long-term ambitions, company purpose, and the Swedish concept of “omtanke”.
Anna Bonander, ERM Manager at AB Volvo, shared their ERM reporting process, their ERM journey at Volvo Group, and their promising plans for the future.
Håkan Jankensgård, Associate Professor in Corporate Finance at Lund University, challenged us to think harder about ERM’s value propositions and how they match up with the reality. But never fear, he still believes ERM has great potential value from: risk culture, risk governance, risk information, eliminating silos, finding the appropriate level of risk management, and proactive decision-support.
The students on my ERM course in the Accounting and Financial Management Master’s program shared their posters with ideas on how to communicate important risk information to the board – many highlighted the importance of connection/correlation between risks, speed of onset, and link to strategic initiatives. Check out the blog with their posters!
We ended the day with a workshop where we focused on finding value in four ERM trends:
In small groups we discussed what activities the participants are already doing or planning to do in each of these areas, brainstormed what might be possible to enhance the value in these areas in the future, and decided what the priorities for 2020 should be. Check out the blog with the summary of the workshop!
It was a great day overall and a good opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences, discuss thoughts and ideas about ERM, and network.