Singapore Global Convention on Corporate Ethics and Risk Management

Boards have a variety of interests and responsibilities relating to risk appetite, management and governance. They need to maintain a balance between enterprise and control and must ensure that governance, compliance and risk management practices do not become a “hinder” and, particularly, obstacles to creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and progress rather than a “help”? Boards should review risk management approaches, adopt an integrated approach, take a balanced view and seek to simultaneously achieve multiple objectives by exploring new enablers such as the adoption of performance support tools. Questions are raised about risk Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and its implementation, board attitudes, practices, and responses, whether risk management needs to be redirected and more value could be obtained from ERM, mapping and tracking risks, cyber security issues, the ethical dimension and professionalism in risk management. Boards themselves can represent a significant risk. Scepticism and challenge, openness and diversity, a widening of the talent pool, more positive and pro-active approaches, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, and leadership in risk management are required. A theme paper written to encourage discussion and debate ahead of a forthcoming global convention in Singapore and published by India's Institute of Directors as: Coulson-Thomas, Colin (2017), [Theme Paper] Singapore Global Convention on Corporate Ethics and Risk Management, www.iodglobal.com, [http://iodglobal.com/images/sgc2017/theme-paper.pdf, 20th November