In today's business environment, the effective management of cross-enterprise risk is a key factor in planning for any organization's long-term viability. While there has always been a conceptual link between risk management and financial viability, today's economic volatility is impelling the move from concept to practice. As a result, enterprise risk management (ERM) has shifted from a "good business" discussion to a "mission critical" means of addressing volatility.

For some businesses, even today, such volatility continues to be the domain of the risk manager, who buys insurance and informally partners with management to address uninsurable risks. Indeed, it has taken the ongoing economic crisis to highlight the need for a more formal, strategic, and proactive means of managing risk.

For many firms, ERM now has moved from a discretionary to a non-discretionary commitment. For others, ERM is a response to board-level demands. Whatever the driver, one thing is clear: every business must more comprehensively balance the different methods used to address risk and volatility. If such a balance is not achieved, the result may be negative media coverage, financial instability, and the general perception that management is not in control — which would not be well received by any engaged board member, key stakeholder, rating agency, or customer. In sum, the audience is growing. The demands are greater. The stakes are higher. The question is no longer why ERM, but rather why not?

Marsh Risk Consulting's Enterprise Risk Services & Solutions (ERSS) group provides clients with a range of services to help them balance the most critical components of volatility and risk. The group deploys services that address ERM in whole and in part, based upon client need. We deliver a comprehensive ERM solution as well as offer stand-alone services that allow our clients to take a methodical, or compartmentalized, approach to ERM. In practice, we identify, define, and quantify the universe of risks that our clients face, and we provide the policies, processes, and infrastructure required to proactively treat those risks.