@Risk

Optimists are known for saying, “Every cloud has a silver lining,” and now, new survey results indicate that, at least with regard to the recession, they may be right.

The July 2010 Korn/Ferry Executive Quiz, which polled senior executives and board members from across the world, shows that in the aftermath of the recession and multiple high-profile financial meltdowns, many organizations are approaching risk differently. In fact, they’re now actively identifying and addressing their own risk management issues more than ever before.

For example: (more…)

Corporate boards and senior executives are becoming increasingly disconnected from their organizations’ security and privacy decisions, according to new research from Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab.

That’s more than a little disheartening to hear, considering that cyber attacks are increasingly common and increasingly effective. In fact, Symantec now estimates that attacks like these cost businesses an average of $2 million per year. They cause loss to productivity, efficiency, revenue, and customer trust.

CyLab’s new research, which follows up on a 2008 study, included a survey of 66 business execs at the board or senior executive level from Fortune 1000 companies. Based on the data collected, CyLab was able to uncover several disturbing trends. For example: (more…)

Aligning risk to performance and integrating risk at a business unit level are part of eight strategic imperatives that will play determining factors in their short- and long-term success following the economic crisis, according to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC).

The report, titled 10Minutes on Competitive Advantage, includes information and insights from PwC’s Global CEO Survey and its US-focused report, as well as interviews with thousands of PwC clients.

Recommendations include: (more…)

PricewaterhouseCoopers recently published its 13th Annual Global CEO Survey, and the results show that business leaders are emerging from the recession with a healthy respect for risk, volatility and flexibility.

Not surprisingly, many of the 1,198 CEOs surveyed cited business concerns that relate to supply chain management. For instance, even though business leaders in the survey cited a protracted global recession as their biggest worry, they also voiced significant unease regarding government overregulation. In fact, more CEOs are ‘extremely concerned’ about over-regulation than any other threat to growth, and worries over protectionist tendencies are up ten percentage points over last year’s survey.

PwC also found that: (more…)

Most corporations are investing inappropriately in corporate governance because they don’t take into account the financial and legal systems of the country in which they operate, according to new research from Lehigh University.

Anne Anderson, associate and a chaired professor in finance, and Parveen Gupta, professor and department chain in accounting at Lehigh College of Business and Economics studied 1,732 firms representing 22 countries. Their research, published in the January issue of The Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics , is the most comprehensive of its kind to-date and explores how a country’s financial structure and legal system impacts an organization’s governance behavior and financial performance.

Interestingly, the study results challenge the traditional thinking that says: if you implement good governance, you will increase the value of your company. Instead, Anderson and Gupta found that an increase in performance occurs only when you match the level of corporate governance with the financial and legal systems of the company where you do business. In a nutshell: (more…)