Survey results, garnered from the responses of more than 200 principal risk professionals from leading organizations around the world, uncovered how organizations view themselves against Aon's five-stage ERM maturity model. This model defines a firm's ERM program implementation level on a scale ranging from 'initial/lacking' and 'basic' at the low end to 'defined' for average maturity and 'operational' and 'advanced' for those at more sophisticated stages. Only seven percent of those professionals surveyed rated themselves at the advanced level, while fifty-eight percent reported ERM implementation at the defined or operational levels. Thirty-five percent of organizations categorized the maturity of their ERM programs as initial/lacking and basic. Consequently, the survey found that 93 percent of organizations now have the opportunity to increase the impact of their ERM programs.
The resulting data uncovered the nine hallmarks of top-performing enterprise risk management programs:
1. Board-level commitment to ERM as a critical framework for successful decision making and driving value
2. Dedicated risk executive in a senior-level position, driving and facilitating the ERM process
3. ERM culture that encourages full engagement and accountability at all levels of the organization
4. Engagement of stakeholders in risk management strategy development and policy setting
5. Transparency of risk communication
6. Integration of financial and operational risk information into decision making
7. Use of sophisticated quantification methods to understand risk and demonstrate added value through risk management
8. Identification of new and emerging risks using internal data as well as information from external providers
9. A move from focusing on risk avoidance and mitigation to leveraging risk and risk management options that extract value
"The ERM journey is organic in nature and unique for each organization; it cannot be completed with a cookie-cutter approach," said Laura Taylor, global leader of ERM for Aon Global Risk Consulting. "The objective is to have ERM rooted in an organization's culture, management processes and strategy to enhance risk-based decision making and add to their continuity and profitability.
Methodology
Aon's Global Enterprise Risk Management practice in conjunction with Aon Analytics conducted this survey of more than 200 risk management professionals from around the world with the support of Aon's survey research specialists, who collected and tabulated the responses.