Economic downturns used to be a time when successful companies invested in innovation so that they could leap-frog ahead of more risk-averse competitors that battened down the hatches during the downturn (often by cutting expenses across the board).

Emerging evidence suggests that future successful companies may be using the current recession to invest in improvements to their risk management capabilities.

Eighty-five percent of corporate leaders say they need to overhaul their approach to risk management due to the economic downturn, according to a new Accenture survey of 260 chief financial officers, chief risk officers, and other senior executives from companies in 21 countries.

Specific risk management problems that were identified by survey respondents include:

• Ineffective integration of risk, return, and capital issues in decision-making (85 percent);

• Lack of alignment between the company’s strategies and its risk appetite (85 percent);

• Insufficient enterprise-wide risk culture (82 percent); and

• Inadequate availability of timely risk, finance, and business data (80 percent)

According to the study, roughly half of the respondents say their companies will invest in risk management improvements. Is your company among the 50 percent that are working to emerge from the recession in savvier shape or among the 50 percent that are simply taking cover? ###