How to be a Chief Risk Officer: A handbook for the modern CRO

The world needs excellent Chief Risk Officers. Managing risk matters. It matters to organisations, who need systematic, appropriate controls that don’t stifle them. It matters to the public, who need to trust their institutions. However, most of all it matters to people: to their lives and livelihoods. When risk management fails, there are almost always consequences faced by the innocent.

The CRO role is complex. It requires a grounding in all of the functions of an organisation, from product management to technology to sustainability. Over the past 20 years, since the emergence of operational risk as a standalone discipline, a large volume of often scholarly material has been written on the topic. However, it is hard to find accessible, clear, practical material that an aspiring CRO can immediately put into action.

This book de-mystifies the CRO role and breaks it into its constituent parts; the three fundamental pillars of Culture, Strategy and Execution, and six risk areas, comprising strategic, people, technology, financial, operational and sustainability. It advises on how to build out a risk framework, what skills are needed to build the risk team, and how to use risk information systems.

Drawing on current standards and enriched with expert insight and real-life current examples, it condenses a vast range of knowledge and experience into one accessible read. This book, which can be consumed all at once, or used as a reference, will equip you with the grounding required to be an effective CRO or risk manager. Relevant, practical and authoritative, this is the CRO book that your CEO, Board and team need you to read.