Most managers feel well equipped to understand and respond to the regular crises that emerge day to day in the business as usual environment. Risk management processes have permeated most organisations which give middle management a sense of comfort that they have things broadly under control.

But those who read the financial press will be aware of emerging state changes which are not picked up by their normal risk management processes.  As such, Directors and Chief Executives reviewing their risk profiles often feel that all of this effort in risk management is missing the big picture. 

Emerging risks are known by many names.  Strategic planners call them external shocks.  Resilience practitioners call them discontinuities.  Risk practitioners call them strategic risks.  Economists call them corrections. Taleb calls them Black Swan events.  Greenspan calls it the age of turbulence.

Whatever you call them, an understanding of emerging risks is critical to leading organisations through turbulent times. 

Partnering with strategists, futurists, emerging risk specialists and resilience practitioners we are connected into a network which enables us to help you develop an emerging risk capability and help you perform emerging risk analysis.

To find out more, read one of our articles, or contact us to arrange a meeting.

Recommended reading:

Are you being a reckless leader without realising it?

Silos.  It’s a word that can fill you with dread if your responsible for the governance of an organisation, yet they keep on appearing.  Organisational theory is currently aguing for matrix structures, but if you’ve ever tried to run one you’ll know that shared accountability without the right tools is the same as no accountability at all.  Silos are alive and well.

TDA has track record in brining these functions together for greatest impact.  We can help to ensure:

• Duplication between assurance functions is minimused
• Assurance programs are focused on what really matters
• Risk management has a top-down view of strategic risks
• Emerging risk capability informs the strategy and risk functions
• Strategic risk insight informs the strategy process
• Strategy drives capability development

To find out more, contact us.

I’m really pleased to announce that the Resilient Futures website went live today.

Resilient Futures was formed in April 2008 as a result of a number of practitioners in various fields believing that the current thinking in their respective professions was inadequate in dealing with the problems of tomorrow, and that resilience thinking and the concepts underpinning it provide much needed clarity in a rapidly changing interconnected world.

The Resilient Futures partnership consists of a divergent practitioners in strategy, risk, urban planning, leadership development and networked systems.  There is a range of innovative but practial thinking coming out of this one and I encourage you to have a look around, read a few articles, download a whitepaper or two, and subscribe to the RSS feed.

I particularly encourage you to have a look at my recent article Are you being a reckless leader without realising it? which gives a feel for where some of the thinking is heading, or our offering on emerging risk analysis here.

Resilient Futures can be found at www.resilientfutures.org.

Strategy, risk, governance and assurance

“Corporate governance, sustainability and strategy have become inseparable.  They are inextricably linked.” Mervyn E. King

A lot of firms specialise in strategy, risk, governance or assurance, but few seem to bring them all together. In everything TDA does, we bring the other disciplines to it, whether using risk management to underpin delivery of your strategy, or getting strategic alignment with these areas.

Please click on a link below to find out more.

Governance & Leadership

• Enterprise Governance - getting everyone on the same page
• Enterprise Resilience - positioning for prosperity in the face of dramatic change
• Compliance with the ASX Corporate Governance Council Principles and Recommendations

Strategy

• Relevance regained – strategic planning for NGOs
• Emerging Risk Analysis - seeing what’s around the corner before it hits

Risk & Assurance

• Fine tuning your Internal Audit function - Internal Audit transformation & quality reviews
• Getting the most out of internal audit sourcing - outsourcing, cosourcing and partnering
• Navigating the GRC maze - understanding GRC solutions and software selection
• Getting what was promised - project assurance and project risk management

Todd is a highly sought after speaker, commentator and evangelist in the fields of business, risk, governance and internal audit.  He is a regular commentator on topics such as emerging risk, resilience and makes an effort to stretch people’s thinking and point out the ’elephants in the room.’ in these areas.

Recent Articles

• AXA, Perpetual, Challenger - As the backloop grows stronger it draws more entities in | resilientfutures.org  | Oct 27 2008
• Resilient leadership? | resilientfutures.org  | Aug 29 2008
• Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme – Main Event or a Side Show? |  resilientfutres.org | Aug 23 2008
• Shell shocked | Risk Management Magazine | July 2008
• What can we learn from the WA Gas crisis? | resilientfutures.org | Jun 20 2008
• GRC - The Great Risk Con | Risk Management Magazine | June 2008
• Allco, ABC, Babcock. Should we have seen these coming? | resilientfutures.org | Jun 15 2008
• Are you being a reckless leader without realising it? |  reslientfutures.org | May 18 2008  

Recent Publications  

Todd regulary contributes to a range of publications and guidance.  Some of these are listed below.

• Guidance to implementing Principle 7 of the ASX Corporate Governance Principle & Recommendatons - Recognise and Manage Risk (2007 release) | IIA-Australia
• Supplementary guidance on Principle 7 - Recognise and Manage Risk (2008) | ASX Corporate Governance Council
• Parliamentary inquiry into Internal Audit | NSW Department of Premier & Cabinet
• Principles & Recommendations of Good Corporate Governance (2007 release) | ASX Corporate Governance Council

Speaking circuit

Some of his recent speaking engagements. 

• Audit Opinions - Part of the process or optional extra | IIA National Public Sector Conference
• Building a Good Audit Committee  | SOPAC - IIA’s premier regional conference for Australia, South Pacific & Asia (with Jon Isaacs - prominent Audit Committe Chair)
• Futurecasting | Mega trends for forecasting, strategy and risk in a rapidly changing world - ACL user’s forum
• ASX Corporate Governance Council’s Revised Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations | Intitute of Internal Auditors Canberra Chapter
• Internal audit as a change agent | ICAA Business forum Victoria (CPE week, Melbourne)
• From the Backroom to the Boardroom - a new horizon for Internal Audit | IIA Western Australian Internal Audit congress, Perth
• Fundamental change in the Audit Profession… Where is it going, how will it affect you and what do you need to do about it? | NSW Internal Audit congresses, Sydney, Penrith (IIAA)
• Corporate Governance and Risk Management for Not for Profits and NGOs | Australian Society of Association Executives, Sydney (AuSAE)
• Pulse Radio - a case study in radical innovation | LQA Innovation program, Melbourne 
• Fundamental change in the Audit Profession… Where is it going, how will it affect you and what do you need to do about it?  | Association of University Auditors (ACUA) Australian National Conference, Sydney.

Copies of these presentations are available here.

Public comment

Todd was recently appointed as the Institute of Internal Auditors of Australia’s Policy Director and is their spokesman, technical advisor and author on technical, policy and advocacy matters in relation to governance, risk, control, audit, assurance and related matters in Australia.  Copies of his statements, presentations and articles are available at www.iia.org.au.

Academia

In addition Todd has been a guest lecturer and tutor at the following:

• Advanced Management Accounting Module | Institute of Chartered Accountants - (CA Program)
• Cashflow forecasting, financial modelling and valuation models | Edith  (National Enterprise Workshop)
• Company Law - Edith Cowan University | (Bachelor of Business Program)