Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is so global and diverse that it has rapidly been incorporated into the syllabus of business schools around the world. On the one hand, this is beneficial to those of us working for communications providers. A new generation of managers will come to work understanding the importance of risk management and keen to see it implemented in practice. On the other hand, it raises the bar for expectations – especially with how well we adapt the general concepts of ERM to the specifics of the communications industry. Managers in well-established risk silos will need to speak the same language as MBA grads with a textbook grounding in ERM. This article, from FT.com, explains how business schools have adopted ERM, but is focused on developing business leaders for the energy sector. For example:
Risk management is covered by most schools, at least as an elective or component of particular programmes, but this is not sufficient. While it is right to include all the tools well-trained managers need to master to be prepared to handle risk, as business educators we must help energy sector leaders address the “human element” – how people react on the ground in response to problems arising and in relation to their individual interests.
Whilst the energy sector has a different risk profile to that of the communications sector, we need to show the same fundamentals of risk management can be applied to our industry too. That involves more than teaching – we must also learn how to make ERM truly relevant to comms providers.
