Enterprise Risk Management Consulting
ERM foundation support focused on what actually sticks: a shared risk language, clear decision rights, and executive-ready formats—delivered as documentation your team can run after handoff.
What this solves
Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is supposed to help leadership see what can derail objectives—and decide what to do about it. In practice, ERM often becomes a long list of risks with no consistent definitions, no stable ownership, and reporting that doesn’t drive decisions.
McLean Risk focuses on the foundational pieces that make ERM usable: governance documentation, shared risk language, and decision-focused reporting formats. The work is designed for client-led operation after handoff—no managed services, no ongoing monitoring, and no running client governance functions.
Common signals
- Risk registers exist, but they don’t change priorities, funding, or tradeoffs.
- Teams argue about scoring because definitions and thresholds aren’t documented.
- Leadership reporting is too long, too generic, or unclear on decisions needed.
- Cybersecurity, vendor, compliance, and operational risk run in parallel with no shared structure.
- Major initiatives move forward without a consistent way to document risk assumptions and constraints.
How the work runs
McLean Risk designs and documents an ERM foundation your team can operate: governance artifacts, templates, and clear reporting formats. Client leadership remains responsible for execution, ongoing updates, and final decisions on risk ratings and corrective actions.
Document the ERM purpose, scope, roles, escalation paths, and what leadership decisions the process is meant to support.
Provide a practical risk taxonomy and plain-language scoring definitions to reduce “talking past each other.”
Register template populated with illustrative risk entries based on client-provided information and common industry themes. Final enterprise risk identification remains client-owned.
Structured fields and guidance for documenting owners, response approach (accept / mitigate / transfer / avoid), and status tracking.
Provide a concise, slide-ready format that highlights top risks, changes, key actions, and decisions needed—without dashboards or analytics tooling.
Document practical ways ERM can connect to planning, budgeting, vendor oversight, cybersecurity, compliance, and operational risk—without requiring new tooling.
What you get
A practical ERM foundation package: documentation and templates designed for client-led operation after handoff. Deliverables are structured to be production-ready and easy to maintain internally.
Purpose, scope, roles, decision rights, escalation paths, and operating guidance—delivered as a draft for client review and approval.
Clear accountability for risk capture, assessment, response ownership, reporting inputs, and governance decisions.
Risk categories, impact types, likelihood/impact scales, and plain-language definitions for consistent internal use.
A usable register template plus starter risk entries based on common industry themes and client-provided context (illustrative—not a substitute for client-owned risk identification).
executive-ready format that organizes client-designated top risks, key updates, and documented decisions required.
Written guidance outlining how the ERM framework may connect to cyber, vendor, compliance, operational risk, and strategic initiatives—without platform implementation.
- McLean Risk designs structure, drafts documentation, and provides options—McLean Risk does not operate your ERM program.
- Final risk ratings, ownership assignments, and corrective actions are determined by the client.
- Ongoing ERM operation (committees, meeting cadence, monitoring, tracking, and reporting) remains client-led unless separately contracted in writing.
- No managed services, no continuous monitoring, no dashboards/analytics tooling, and no technical implementation are implied by this page.
Quick self-check
If these sound familiar, the issue is usually structure—not effort.
- Your risk register goes stale because there’s no lightweight operating structure or clear ownership.
- Leadership asks, “What decision do you need from us?” after ERM updates.
- Risks are listed without owners, response approach, or review triggers.
- Risk scoring changes based on who is in the room because definitions aren’t documented.
- ERM outputs don’t show up in planning, budget conversations, or major initiative reviews.
FAQ
How is ERM different from operational risk management?
Operational risk management often stays close to processes, controls, incidents, and day-to-day execution. ERM is enterprise-wide and strategy-facing: it focuses on risks that can derail objectives and the decisions leadership needs to make. They should connect, but they serve different purposes.
Do we need risk appetite statements?
Not always as a long, formal document. What you do need is a clear way to define thresholds that guide decisions—otherwise scoring becomes personal opinion. McLean Risk can draft example threshold options and wording for leadership to refine. Final approval and adoption remain with client leadership.
How often should ERM be updated?
It depends on your decision cycle and how quickly your operating environment changes. McLean Risk can include operating guidance and sample cadence options in the ERM documentation, but ongoing updates and governance rhythms are client-led unless separately contracted.
Will you run our risk committee?
No. McLean Risk does not run client risk committees or perform ongoing governance operation. McLean Risk can provide the operating documents and, if separately scoped in writing, facilitate a limited number of initial working sessions focused on documentation completion and handoff.