Sim Segal, Director of Enterprise Risk Management Programs at Columbia and author of Corporate Value of Enterprise Risk Management, authored the report “Front-Page Risks: Risks Commonly Occurring and Reported in the Canadian News,” included on the Society of Actuaries website. Segal’s research explores common risk events among Canadian nongovernmental organizations as reported in the first ten pages of the front page or business sections of The Globe and Mail.
One of the takeaways from the paper is that most organizations place an undue emphasis on financial risks, rather than strategic and operational risks, which represent the bulk of organizational volatility. He explains, “Every research study I’ve ever seen confirms that strategic risk is the largest source of risks, followed by operational risks, with financial risk trailing a distant third. Organizations ignore these more important risk sources at their peril."
