Aon Globak Risk Advises Companies on Risks

Aon Global Risk Consulting on Wednesday urged corporations to begin an immediate evaluation of their enterprise risk management programs, focusing particularly on risks that might hinder growth and development, and on the culture of risk awareness across the organization.

The move comes in response to a communication this month from Standard & Poor's that the rating agency is enhancing its rating process for non-financial companies to include a review of their enterprise risk management programs.

"Through this assessment process, S&P aims to evaluate the extent to which corporations approach risk management from an integrated, company-wide perspective," said Laura Taylor, Aon Global Risk Consulting's ERM national practice leader. "Processes through which organizations understand, manage and communicate information about risks arising throughout the enterprise will be scrutinized. Therefore, senior management of S&P-rated corporations need to demonstrate that risk mitigation is an element of their strategic decision making process in order to score well on the S&P ERM assessment."

Even as regulators and corporate stakeholders push companies to do more to mitigate enterprise-wide risks, only one in 10 companies in the Americas and Europe has fully integrated an enterprise risk management (ERM) strategy, according to a recent Aon Global Risk Consulting survey.

At the heart of ERM is a comprehensive understanding of the global risks facing an organization, the design of strategies to mitigate those risks and the building of a corporate culture focused on risk management.