Risk Management as Good Business

Yale University behavioral economists professor Robert Shiller recently identified the cause of the financial crisis, stating: “The real problem is that we weren’t managing risk.” Standard and Poor’s has added enterprise risk management as a factor to consider in issuing credit ratings. These trends point to a growing emphasis on risk management across all industry sectors, not just finance. Companies that ignore this trend risk being at a competitive disadvantage when the global economy emerges from recession. Jeff Smith, chief risk officer of Consulting Services Support Corp, notes, "Once a number of companies begin to better manage and mitigate their own unique risks of loss, it only makes sense that other corporations that wish to retain competitive advantage and attractiveness to shareholders would follow suit.”

The need for risk management points to the need for widespread, scalable risk management tools. @RISK and DecisionTools Suite software add Monte Carlo simulation and other analytical techniques to Microsoft Excel — a platform everyone can understand. Using Palisade risk analysis tools, analysts and managers can make quantitative, data-driven, better-informed decisions.