In an ideal world team players would achieve desired results in the best interests of the customer, and corporate objectives would be at the core of planning and performance measurement.

Integrated risk management is about aligning an organization's management processes to achieve this vision. The identification, assessment and management of risk across an organization helps reveal the impact of risk on the whole organization and the interdependence of risk management strategies across it. Integrating this information at a corporate level helps optimize resources (e.g. by preventing the over-hedging of risk through the identification of inherent or natural hedges). Integrated risk management can be implemented once systematic risk management becomes embedded in the organization's corporate strategy and performance measurements. It will shape the organization's risk management culture…creating a risk-smart organization.

The need to integrate risk management across organizations stems from the realization that:

•  Some risks are complex: mitigating a risk in one department may create a  more significant risk in another department;
  
  
•  Hedging all risks is expensive in both economic and policy terms. If the  same risk is hedged across several departments we may be unnecessarily  compounding the expense;
  
  
•  Many risks are linked by the same source of risk;
  
  
•  Integrated risk management can support activities that foster innovation and  strategic flexibility; and
  
  
•  Integrated risk management strives for the optimal balance of risk at the  corporate level.

LESRISK's Recent Integrated Risk Management Mandates

For a provincial government in Canada, LESRISK provided the technical and change management expertise for the implementation of integrated risk management, organization-wide. We developed the risk management policies, process, framework and training programs. The success of the initiative, as measured by the controller's capacity checklist and strategic planning improvements was significant.

LESRISK Coached the CFO a multi-branch financial institution to actively manage assets and liabilities and restructure the financial and new product development functions, resulting in 200%+ income growth within a year. Linking treasury, marketing and retail functions was key to the success of the project.

With an emphasis on credit risk management, LESRISK planned and conducted the viability study for a virtual financial institution as an alternative method of service delivery. This contingency plan is now in implementation on a national scale.