May your 2012 be filled with risk-management clarity … and a diagnostic to help you assess the strength of your risk culture.

Given the ERM renaissance of the past several years as well as the emergence of new technology tools designed to strengthen risk-management processes, risk culture appears to represent the next frontier of enterprise risk management. It also appears that “analytics” – specific metrics that help managers understand, assess, and improve the performance of various processes – will figure prominently in managing risk cultures as more companies and services firms turn their attention to the least tangible variables in the risk equation: people and behavior. more

Any way you cut the numbers, U.S.-based companies are conducting more and more business outside our borders. In fact, 60 percent of the business done by the companies of the S&P 500 now takes place in other countries, according to this article in Institutional Investor. What’s more, companies that do more of their business overseas tend to do better overall. Firms that generate more than half their revenue internationally grow more quickly than firms that generate more than half their revenue domestically, Reuters reports.

A number of iconic U.S. companies now are decidedly multinational. Procter & Gamble generates nearly 60 percent of its revenue outside the U.S., while Ford produces more than half its cars outside North America.

As many firms look to other countries and emerging markets for sales growth, treasurers and CFOs need to make sure that the money generated or spent can move about. That usually means opening up bank accounts in the countries in which their firms have production and/or sales operations. Mary Ann Dowling, a principal with Treasury Strategies, offers her recommendations for doing this safely and efficiently: more

When viewing all the risks that companies face today, you see that one of the most severe is certainly the risk to a company’s reputation. Whether it is simply perception or fact, when a company’s reputation is questioned, the impact can be devastating and difficult to remedy. This risk recently has become even more severe with the speed and ease of information access via the Internet. In our new YouTube and Facebook society, we all know the potential for the unintended widespread release of information that may be considered private. Now, that same sort of issue may impact companies through the potential release of private information through sources such as WikiLeaks. more

An article in Monday’s Wall Street Journal, (“The Year Ahead: Jobs, Wars, Deficits, Sports — and the Campaign,”) features a graph that should inspire some New Year’s self-reflection.

The graph, “Four Key Numbers,” featurea breakdowns on world trade volume, U.S. corporate cash, U.S. employment, and crude-oil prices. The graphs provide a great reminder of how volatile our world remains – and how we should be focusing on the key numbers in our own organization’ future.

To be better prepared for the future in 2011, I suggest asking four questions, two of which I’ll explain here (the final two will be included in my next blog entry later this week). more

January 1st, New Year’s Day, is a chance for proposing changes. The tradition is to make resolutions such as to lose weight or exercise more. Typically, they are personal ones made by individuals, but I have a new twist: resolutions for CEOs, heads of government agencies, and executive teams of all organizations.

I propose that these types of managers enlist in a yoga class. My reasoning is that they need to periodically detach themselves from the hustle and bustle of the flurry of daily distractions and have some solitude. I was inspired to adopt this idea by reading a lecture by William Deresiewicz that was delivered to the plebe class at the United States Military Academy at West Point in October 2009. more