The Leader’s Guide to Owning Risks and Driving Risk Based Decision Making
This guide positions risk ownership as a core leadership behaviour, not a technical or compliance task. It urges executives to shift risk from governance ritual to delivery confidence: asking forward‑looking questions, surfacing uncertainties early, and using risk appetite to shape real trade‑offs. Leaders must send consistent signals that early escalation is valued, stop penalising bad news, and turn business reviews into tests of confidence rather than comfort. Success is evident when risks are raised before issues, appetite drives decisions, and risk‑based decision making becomes a leadership habit.
From Meta-Crisis to Shared Resilience: South Africa’s Opportunity to Build Forward
South Africa’s risks may be interconnected, but so too are its opportunities to respond, renew and build greater national resilience.
The country faces a demanding combination of climate pressure, infrastructure constraints, low growth, municipal capability challenges, institutional governance concerns and exposure to global financial volatility. These pressures are serious. Yet they should not be viewed as separate crises competing for attention, nor as evidence that improvement is beyond reach. They are connected risks that call for connected leadership.
For strategy, risk, resilience and audit professionals, this creates an important opportunity to move from recording individual risks towards strengthening the systems, relationships and capabilities that enable organisations and communities to withstand disruption and continue creating value.
Beyond the Risk Register: Why Strategic Resilience Is Now a Leadership Imperative
A risk register may show an organisation where danger has been mapped, but it does not necessarily show whether that organisation can withstand a shock.
For years, risk registers have been central to sound governance. They provide a structured way to identify threats, assign ownership, assess likelihood and impact, and monitor the effectiveness of controls. When used well, they support accountability, transparency and informed oversight by executive management, boards and audit committees.
However, the operating environment has changed. Organisations face not only isolated risks, but also interconnected disruptions. A cyber incident can interrupt operations, damage customer confidence and trigger regulatory scrutiny. A severe weather event can affect infrastructure, supply chains, workforce availability and public service delivery at the same time. Economic pressure, geopolitical instability, digital dependency and climate-related events can combine in ways that are difficult to predict through conventional risk assessment alone.
This is why organisations must move beyond the risk register towards strategic resilience.
Leverage your ERM as a powerful Decision Tool
Many companies and organisations have an Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) program where they identify, evaluate and decide on action to take on key risks to the company/organisation. For some this is a very systematic and well documented approach using scientific methodologies etc. – for others it is a collection of managerial perceptions. In most all process, some decisions are taken, and the organisation believes it executes well on ERM.
Risk Appetite and Risk Tolerance
George Bernhard Shaw has been quoted to state that “The English and Americas are two fine people, separated by a shared language”. It appears the drive to increase confusion has not stopped yet. Personally, having English as my second language, I mentally like the ISO vocabulary better than the COSO – but I can easily live with either. So:
Dear ISO and COSO organisations. Get together and agree on terminology.
Environmental Scanning: Your Secret Weapon for Navigating Uncertainty
Environmental scanning is a strategic process that empowers risk professionals to anticipate risks and uncover opportunities by analysing internal and external factors. It enhances decision-making, fosters organisational agility, and ensures resilience in dynamic markets. Netflix’s transformation exemplifies its power, making it an indispensable tool for navigating uncertainty and driving sustainable success.
Risk Management: From Yawn to Yay! How Theory of Change Became the Life of the Boardroom
This blog post shows how Theory of Change and digital tools like TOCO and Changeroo make risk management engaging and collaborative. By visualising strategies, involving stakeholders, and keeping things creative, risk professionals can transform traditional processes into dynamic, effective, and even fun approaches to managing uncertainty
Unlocking Value: Why Executives Should Champion Decision-Centric Risk Management
Decision-centric risk management enables organisations to embed risk consideration directly into strategic and operational decision-making, balancing threats and opportunities to drive resilience and value. Unlike compliance-centric models that focus on regulatory adherence and box-ticking, decision-centric approaches are dynamic, collaborative, and geared toward achieving objectives and adapting to change. By integrating real-time analytics, scenario planning, and cross-functional accountability, decision-centric risk management transforms risk from a defensive function to a strategic enabler, empowering executives to deliver better outcomes and su