Risk managers rate their inter-department relations

Risk managers must work to break down silos within their organisations, especially with their research and development (R&D) teams.

Only 23% of risk managers in a StrategicRISK survey on Reporting Risk said their integration with their innovation/R&D teams was “effective” or “very effective”.

This was in stark contrast to their integration with the finance function, which was rated as being “effectively” or “very effectively” integrated with risk by 71% of respondents (see graph, right).

According to Geetha Kanagasingam – Barclays Bank vice-president UK, Europe and Asia-Pacific, group insurance, group risk – one of the fundamental roles of a successful risk manager is to break down organisational silos.

“The biggest barrier in implementing a successful enterprise risk management framework is the lack, or refusal, of communication as a result of silos within the organisation,” she said.

“This challenge exists regardless of the sector, be it public, private or large multinational corporations.

“A risk manager who is a powerful communicator is one who is able to influence and gain the trust of the stakeholders.”

Another respondent noted: “We need a greater transparency in term of risk information data. In order to break the barriers, we will need more relevant and up-to-date information from each function area of work.”

Sales/marketing, human resources and procurement also scored relatively poorly when it came to integration.