I’ve said it before: the Aberdeen Group’s “Executive Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Agenda” report clearly and authoritatively presents the current state of global ERM.

I was leafing through my well-worn copy of the report last week and came across an interesting analysis of the organizational-culture differences between best-in-class ERM practitioners and lagging ERM practitioners.

Risk leaders are more likely to have a senior executive championing risk management activities than are risk laggards. Well, of course. (I’m still waiting for a consultant or analyst to tell me, “You know what the key to success is here, Jimmy – a complete lack of support from senior management. It turns out that executive support is overrated and, by gosh, just not necessary in this day and age.”)

So here are the compelling and useful differentiators:

• 57 percent of risk leaders coordinate risk management activities in a cross-functional manner (only 37 percent of risk laggards do);

• 46 percent of risk leaders establish roles and responsibilities to execute risk initiatives (compared to 22 percent of risk laggards); and

• 44 percent of risk leaders establish risk committees for all key risks (23 percent of laggards do so).

The keys to ERM success in the area of organizational culture? A cross-functional approach, clearly defined roles and responsibilities (possibly a “duh,” but OK), and risk committees. ###