Taking Cover

摘要

Despite the best efforts of trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt, it looks like George W Bush's introduction of the Sarbanes Oxley Act in July 2002 will have a rippling effect on businesses around the globe. However; it can hardly have come as a huge shock. The act raising directors' reponsibility for signing off accounts is only the latest in a long line of measures calling for better risk management in the boardroom. The measures go back a decade to the Cadbury Report of 1992 which introduced a code of practice for financial reporting and boardroom accountability in the wake of scandals at The Mirror Group pension fund, the BCCI banking group and Polly Peck. Ten years on, and a rash of similarly seismic US-based collapses - Enron, WorldCom - have precipitated further regulation. But while Cadbury's successor; The Turnbull Report, sketches the outline of what a risk management system should look like - embedded within operations, not separated from them; able to respond to internal and external change; adaptable to individual circumstances - it is not a framework for best practice risk management. So where can executive managers turn to for guidance in identifying and mitigating against risk? Their requirements are a dynamic process of analysis and control that allows for ongoing assessment and monitoring of results as operating conditions change.