Ep. 196: Amanda Cohen – Why your company needs a risk management makeover

Connect with Amanda:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-cohen-0b4b81a6/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/resolver-inc/

https://twitter.com/Resolver

https://www.facebook.com/ResolverInc

https://www.instagram.com/resolverinc/

https://www.youtube.com/user/ResolverGRC

Full Episode Transcript:
Adam:

I'm Adam Larson and welcome to Count Me In, the podcast focused on all the ways management accountants can help businesses thrive through smart financial management and data driven decision making. My guest today is Amanda Cohen, the vice president of product at Resolver, a software company helping businesses manage complex interconnected risks. We talk about the image problem that governance, risk, and compliance functions or GRC have at many businesses; namely, that they're tedious, repetitive and restrictive. Amanda explains how this negative perception of GRC actually hampers innovation and growth. The good news is Amanda has tips to transform this frog into a prince at your company, making GRC a more dynamic and valued partner to business operations and performance. I hope you enjoy this modern day fairytale featuring our favorite stars: management accountants.

Adam:

Amanda, thank you so much for coming on our podcast today. We're really excited to have you on and today we're gonna be focusing a lot on risk or governance, risk and, compliance, kind of the big three words governing organization. And one of the biggest things that we kind of wanted to focus on is, you know, there's an image problem that you've said a number of times that there's an image problem with with GRC. Can you kind of talk a little bit about that as we get started today?

Amanda:

Yeah, certainly. So I think a lot of it, well, I think there's a couple different angles that the governance risk and compliance space has a bit of an image problem. First and foremost, I don't think a lot of the organization understands exactly what they do and how they provide value to the organization. And so often they're seen as a barrier that maybe comes in a little late during the project or, or something that's preventing you from getting to your objectives. And really, I think that's all just in terms of the order of operations. If we can flip that around a little bit and bring these teams in earlier, it's not that person who's getting in your way of completing your project or helping you complete or achieve your objective. Really what you're starting to do is you are bringing them along for the ride and helping or using those teams to help guide your project and make sure that it's operating with the realm of what's appropriate for the organization.

Amanda:

And then they're gonna help you find really creative, suggestive alternatives to help move things. So that's kind of one area of the image problem is, you know, there's a barrier specifically that they seem to be imposing. And then the other one that we hear a lot from our customers is really that it seems like these teams are constantly asking me for the same information. And so, you know, you might get a request from someone in audit and they're looking for a bunch of documentation on how you run a particular process. And then two weeks later, two months later, someone from compliance is coming in and they're you the exact same question, you know, your internal controls team, same thing. And so it's like, why can these teams not just get together come up with some kind of strategy on how to collect that information and then reduce the onus on me because the business is really just trying to accomplish their job. It's not their job to provide you with the documentation. And so when there's more synergy between those teams it also reduces a little bit of that friction that you often get from the business.

Adam:

It almost seems like when you're looking at risk management from an organizational perspective, the organization's mission kind of needs to be the foundation of that. And the focus of that risk management, because otherwise everybody won't be on the same page if it's not there, how do you get there?

Amanda:

So, I mean, there's a couple ways to help be a part of those strategic decisions, be a part of what the organization is trying to accomplish. It really helps when you have buy in from the top. If your executive endorses and believes that risk and compliance has a place at the table during those discussions, it's gonna be a lot easier, but in order to, it's a bit of a chicken and egg, because it's also in order to be included in those conversations, you need to be providing insights. And so something that, you know, if all the risk function or the compliance function, whatever it may be is there. And they're just, you know, showing up at that board meeting, showing up at that executive meeting to present their five minutes on their findings and, you know, maybe their last regulatory audit, like, okay. But what have you uncovered what's in your data to help us understand, you know, how the organization is gonna achieve their objectives? Are there potentially a couple alternatives that we could consider or that we should be thinking about as we're making these strategic decisions? And so when risk can bring more valuable data that also helps propel them forward and allows them to be a part of that conversation and that'll help get that executive endorsement and then allow them to be, you know, help the organization achieve that mission that they're trying to accomplish.

Adam:

So I know that you know, it's probably rare that, you know, your CMA, your certified management accountant, your management accounting will lie awake at night thinking, oh no. What about that regulatory compliance document? It is something that's important. And a lot of times culture pl...