Governance, Risk & Compliance: GRC
Orchestrating Success: Why a 360° View of GRC Processes is the New Business Imperative
Imagine an orchestra. One where each section plays its own melody, without listening to anything else. The result? A lack of harmony. This is exactly how many organizations approach their Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC) processes. With a lack of harmony.
When GRC process control activities operate in silos, the business can only address risks in isolation. This leads to critical gaps and missed opportunities for proactive risk mitigation.
Did you know? A company’s reputation accounts for over 25% of its market value on average, says the Journal of Cybersecurity.
Diving deeper, many companies have faced severe financial penalties and reputational damage due to poor risk management. For instance, some have been fined billions for environmental disasters, product safety issues, or emissions scandals. Others have suffered immense reputational harm and stock price drops following data breaches, corporate misconduct, and unauthorized account creation.
In several cases, companies paid massive settlements for privacy violations or failure to disclose safety risks. Others struggled to regain consumer trust after their unethical practices were exposed.
These instances demonstrate how poor risk management can result in fines and legal action but also spark long-lasting damage to a company’s reputation and stakeholder trust.
The challenge? Without a consolidated view of their risk landscape, businesses are left reacting to problems instead of proactively managing them. Risks today are interconnected across all areas of the enterprise—from operational risks to compliance challenges, third-party risks, and environmental factors. Without a clear understanding of how these risks influence one another, decision-making becomes reactive. When this happens, organizations may struggle to meet their objectives because they suddenly become too heads-down. This makes extracting actionable insights that improve governance and compliance processes much more complex than it should be.
Companies must be mindful of the long-term damage caused by reputational risk. For example, a study by the University of Oxford found reputational damage can be far more harmful than financial penalties. They specifically found that within the banking industry (where misconduct directly affects customers, suppliers, or investors), banks often face share price losses up to ten times greater than the penalties themselves. This loss of trust is much harder to rebuild, with recovery often taking up to 80 weeks.
The solution?
According to Gartner, a leading research and advisory company, 60% of organizations believe they have integrated systems simply because they are centralizing data. However, if the data is not being synchronized to provide deeper insight, a significant opportunity is lost.
Organizations need a skilled conductor—one capable of unifying GRC efforts into a cohesive, forward-thinking strategy. By adopting a holistic, 360° approach to GRC, businesses can transform their fragmented processes into a well-orchestrated symphony of risk management. This way, every GRC aspect is harmonized to support operational efficiency, mitigate risks, and ensure resilience via an integrated GRC framework.
How SAI360’s 360° GRC Solution Addresses This Challenge
SAI360 offers an integrated platform that connects GRC process controls into a single integrated GRC framework. The result? A fully comprehensive, 360° risk solution. This unified approach allows organizations to effectively drive automated risk assessment across all functions.
Key benefits of SAI360’s platform include:
- Automated Risk & Compliance Management: Reduce manual workloads and errors by automating risk assessments and compliance tasks. Real-time Risk and Control Self-Assessments ensure that your risk environment is continuously evaluated.
- Centralized System for Fast Action: Identify compliance gaps quickly with a centralized management system, allowing your teams to address issues before they escalate.
- Operational Resilience & Data-Driven Decisions: Continuous monitoring of Key Risk Indicators (KRIs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) empowers teams to make informed, data-driven decisions that align risk management with broader business goals.
- Streamlined Third-Party Risk Management: Manage and monitor vendor relationships efficiently with a streamlined approach to third-party risk management, reducing external risks and boosting resilience.
Final Thoughts
Fragmented risk management is a thing of the past. By consolidating GRC processes into a unified framework, businesses can proactively manage risks, anticipate disruptions, and stay competitive in an ever-evolving market.
The best benefit of a holistic GRC vantage point? Empowerment. That’s the secret to navigating the complexities of modern business with greater confidence and agility.
This article is based on insights from Delivering Integrated GRC Across Risk Domains. ©GRC 20/20 Research, LLC.
Sources:
https://academic.oup.com/cybersecurity/article/7/1/tyab021/6362163?login=false
