xRisk

What is xRisk?

Today’s world is changing more dramatically than ever before, leading to new and unprecedented risks and challenges every day.

xRisk is a program designed to help boards and executives make sense of these changes and turn strategic risks into strategic opportunities. It ensures that organisations understand these challenges, assess them correctly, engage in a meaningful way around them as well as meeting their fiduciary responsibilities. 

Perhaps more importantly, it helps leaders to become more whole-sighted around immediate and emergent risks and opportunities and better placed to lead their organisations in a changing world.

Why xRisk? Why now?

Principle 7 of the ASX Corporate Governance Council Principles and Recommendations reminds directors and management that they have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that their most material business risks are understood and managed by the board and the executive team.

“At the time that Principle 7 was being drafted, the Council was concerned that boards were being swamped in risk management activity, but not getting to the crux of the most material business risks. This concern has proven correct.

Our analysis of Australian listed companies over the past 10 years indicates that the vast majority of value destruction occurs in the strategic risk space, and not in traditional areas where risk activity is usually focused. Our findings are consistent with international research of the global Fortune 500 over several decades.

These results indicate that while organisations are relatively good at routine risk areas (operational, compliance etc) they struggle to anticipate and respond appropriately to their most material risk areas, in particular, strategic risk and emerging material risk.

Our goal for xRisk is for organisations to be well-positioned as well as well-run for the benefit of those who rely on them to do so.”

Todd Davies, Program Leader

What is xRisk?

XRisk is a joint initiative between two of Australia’s leading thinkers and practitioners on strategic risk and risk strategy. Our goal is to help those with responsibility for decision-making and risk oversight to ensure that their organisations are well-positioned as well as well-run.

No Director wants a Kodak moment on their CV.

We assist organisations in four ways:

  1. Work with responsible executives to assess the reasonableness of their risk profiles and to identify strategic blind-spots
  2. Equip their people to better understand and discuss major trends and changes in their strategic landscape
  3. Equip their people to understand immediate and emerging conditions, tipping points, threshold breaches and to monitor these on an ongoing basis
  4. Make strategic interventions and the right time and scale for the success of their organisations.

How is xRisk delivered?

We do this work in four ways:

  1. Strategic bespoke consulting, briefings and facilitated workshops with boards and executive teams
  2. Strategic bespoke consulting with risk and assurance teams
  3. Professional executive development programs to train the organisation’s strategy teams, risk teams and decision makers in the xRisk techniques and framework
  4. Public courses on the xRisk program. Our work is delivered through a combination of online and face to face participation.

Who is xRisk?

xRisk is a joint initiative between Todd Davies and Larry Quick delivered in conjunction with the team at Resilient Futures.

Todd Davies is an internationally respected commentator on risk governance and was one of the architects of ASX Corporate Governance Council Principle 7 – Recognise and Manage Risk. He brings direct experience from designing, implementing and overseeing risk management frameworks across Australia for major listed companies, government agencies and the not for profit sector. Todd is a serial entrepreneur and board member with a background in market strategy and disruptive start-ups.

Larry is a respected civic and corporate strategist and futurist, who has dedicated most of his professional life to helping organisations understand and successfully respond to major shifts in the underlying way they need to create and capture value. He is the founding author and global practice leader of Resilient Futures, Strategic Planning in Action and Australia Beyond Broadband.

Public program

xRisk will be hosting it’s first public program during the Australian spring. Contact us to register your interest and request prospectus.

Alternatively contact us for a confidential discussion and assessment of whether your organisation is xRisk capable, and whether there are any gaps in your risk profile.