In a world defined by uncertainty, effective risk management has never been more critical or more valuable. Every organisation faces a range of internal and external factors that create both risk and opportunity. The challenge is not to avoid uncertainty, but to identify and manage them so that you can protect value, enhance resilience and seize opportunities with confidence.
At Moore Australia, we work with clients across industries to strengthen governance, improve decision-making and embed effective Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) frameworks that transform uncertainty into a strategic advantage.
The Business Case for Risk Management
Risk management is often misunderstood as purely defensive as a way to avoid loss or compliance breaches. However, a mature risk management approach also helps identify and pursue opportunities that align with your strategic goals. An integrated ERM system helps to:
- Achieve strategic vision, mission and objectives – identify the obstacles and opportunities which may prevent/ aid your organisation from/ to achieving your vision, mission and objectives.
- Protect and create value – Safeguard assets, people and reputation while enabling innovation and growth.
- Enhance decision-making – Provide leadership teams with the information needed to make risk-aware strategic choices.
- Strengthen governance and compliance – Build trust with regulators, investors and stakeholders.
- Drive performance – Connect risk insights to planning, budgeting and performance management.
- Build resilience – Anticipate, respond and adapt effectively to change and disruption.
Shortcomings in Risk Management
Many organisations recognise the importance of risk management but struggle to make it truly effective. Typical shortcomings include:
- Lack of defined risk appetite and risk tolerance – organisations fail to identify their risk appetite (which is maximum risk level for a given risk) or risk tolerance (which is the acceptable risk movement from your risk appetite). They fail to compare their current risk levels to the risk appetite and risk tolerances to see whether they need to take further action.
- Low appetite to all risks – for those organisations that do have a risk appetite and risk tolerance they identify all risks as “low risk appetite”. Organisations will not be able to achieve the low-risk rating without considerable costs and burden on resources and it is most likely not required or intended.
- Fragmented frameworks – Risk processes that operate in silos rather than being linked to an enterprise strategy.
- Limited focus on opportunity – Risk discussions centred on threats, not on potential benefits or upside.
- Static risk registers – Risks identified once but not regularly reviewed or aligned to changing risks, opportunities and objectives.
- Lack of control identification and testing – Organisations don’t identify and test controls to support their control assurance.
- Lack of identification of treatment actions – Organisations don’t identify further actions (i.e. treatment actions) to bring their risk within risk appetite.
- Insufficient culture and ownership – Risk viewed as a compliance function rather than everyone’s responsibility.
- Lack of connection to other risk frameworks – Lack of connection to other risk frameworks such as business continuity, emergency management, crisis management, incident management, and fraud and corruption management.
- Lack of connection to performance – Risk information not integrated with business planning, forecasting, or KPIs.
These shortcomings often result in missed opportunities, inefficient resource allocation and exposure to avoidable events.
What Can Go Wrong Without Managing Risks and Opportunities?
The risk of not managing risks is essentially that unidentified or unmitigated threats can cause serious harm to an organisation, project, or individual goals. In other words, failing to manage risks creates greater and more unpredictable risks. In practical terms,
- Unexpected Losses – There are unexpected losses which may include:
- Financial – Cost overruns, lost revenue or wasted resources.
- Operational – Downtime, production delays or supply chain disruptions.
- Reputational – Loss of trust, negative publicity or brand damage.
- Missed Opportunities - Not managing risks often means focusing only on threats and missing potential opportunities (positive risks). For example, being too cautious or unaware can prevent innovation or market growth.
- Lack of Preparedness - Without risk management, organisations or individuals:
- Have no contingency plans for when things go wrong.
- React chaotically instead of strategically.
- Spend more time firefighting instead of progressing.
- Cascade Failures - A single unmanaged risk can trigger others. For example, a data breach (cyber risk) can cause legal action (compliance risk), customer loss (reputational risk) and financial strain.
- Non-Compliance or Legal Issues - Many industries require formal risk management. Ignoring it can lead to regulatory fines, legal liabilities and loss of licenses or contracts.
- Strategic Failure - Without understanding risks, leaders make decisions based on incomplete information, leading to misaligned goals, poor resource allocation and strategic collapse.
Not managing risks doesn’t eliminate them, it just eliminates your ability to control their impact. Conversely, organisations with mature ERM frameworks demonstrate greater resilience, agility and stakeholder confidence.
A Better Practice Approach: ISO 31000 and COSO Enterprise Risk Management
Two globally recognised frameworks provide strong foundations for effective enterprise risk management:
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ISO 31000:2018 – Risk Management - Guidelines
Offers principles and a structured process for integrating risk management into all organisational activities. It emphasises leadership commitment, continual improvement and embedding risk thinking into culture and decision-making.
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COSO Enterprise Risk Management (2017)
Provides a comprehensive model linking risk, strategy, and performance. It focuses on governance, risk appetite, performance measurement, information and communication, and continuous monitoring.
At Moore Australia, we align our methodologies with these standards to help clients develop practical and robust systems suited to their size, industry and complexity.
Key Elements of an Effective Enterprise Risk Management System
A strong ERM framework, aligned with ISO 31000 and COSO principles, typically includes:
- Governance and Leadership – Clear roles, responsibilities, and accountability for risk management, supported by tone from the top.
- Risk Culture, Appetite and Tolerance– A shared understanding of acceptable risk levels, acceptable movement in risk appetite and behaviours across the organisation.
- Integration with Strategy and Objectives – Risk considerations embedded in strategic planning, investment, and performance discussions.
- Risk Identification, Assessment, and Analysis– Systematic identification, assessment and analysis of both threats and opportunities.
- Risk Controls, Treatment and Response – Development and implementation of controls, and treatment actions to reduce risks to within acceptable levels. This includes mitigation, transfer, acceptance, or exploitation strategies.
- Monitoring and Reporting – Regular reporting to Management and Boards, ensuring visibility of key risks, opportunities and emerging trends.
- Performance Monitoring – Ensuring that risks are allowing achievement of strategic performance and are not jeopardising their achievement.
- Information, Communication, and Consultation – Engaging stakeholders and ensuring timely, relevant, and accurate information flow.
- Continuous Improvement – Reviewing and refining the ERM framework to reflect lessons learned and a changing environment.
How Can Moore Australia Help?
Our Governance and Risk Consulting specialists’ partner with Boards, Executives, Management teams and their Risk Management Professionals to design, implement and enhance risk and opportunity management frameworks that are both compliant and commercially effective.
We assist with:
- ERM framework, policies, procedures, plans, risk registers, design and implementation aligned to ISO 31000 and COSO Frameworks.
- Risk appetite and tolerance setting that supports strategic decision-making.
- Risk culture assessments to strengthen accountability and leadership engagement.
- Internal audit and assurance over the effectiveness of risk management processes.
- Business continuity, emergency management, crisis management and incident management frameworks, plans, business impact assessments to ensure the continuity of your organisation in the event of a disruption.
- Fraud and corruption risk frameworks, plans and assessments to assist with identifying fraud and corruption risks so that you can mitigate and reduce these within your organisation.
- Cyber, ESG, and emerging risk management support.
- Risk training and workshops to ensure that staff understand the roles and responsibilities in the ERM framework.
The most successful organisations understand that risk is not just something to control but it is in fact something to manage strategically.
By embedding a robust, opportunity-focused risk framework aligned to ISO 31000:2018 and COSO, your organisation can operate with greater confidence and agility in an increasingly uncertain world. Our goal is to help you move beyond compliance in order to create a culture where risk and opportunity management drives performance and resilience.
Moore Australia can help you get there by turning uncertainty into advantage and ensuring your risk management framework supports sustainable success.