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...