Perspectives on Integrated Business Risk Management (BRM) and the Implications for Corporate Governance

Abstract

There is increasing interest by top management in matters connected to integrated Business Risk Management (BRM). At the same time, BRM frameworks aimed at facilitating compliance with corporate governance requirements are being developed (e.g. Lipworth, 1997). This paper explores ways in which top managers in six UK companies covering the service to manufacturing sectors and ranging in size from large to small took practical steps towards understanding and implementing BRM. Approaches by managers ranged from the naïve to the sophisticated. In the study one of the particular perspectives considered was the possible influence of legal considerations. In this context, one of the principal drivers to introducing BRM in the present climate of corporate accountability was found to be fear of exposure in the media for mis-handling risks rather than concerns about the enforcement of any law.