Webinar urges boards to adapt ERM to VUCA volatility

NC State University’s Enterprise Risk Management Initiative is telling boards and executives to treat risk management as part of planning, reporting, and culture, not a separate compliance exercise. (grfcpa.com) (erm.ncsu.edu) Enterprise risk management, or ERM, is a company-wide way to spot threats across finance, operations, technology, and strategy before they hit results. NC State’s materials say the process works best when risk oversight is integrated with strategic planning and governance. (erm.ncsu.edu 1) (erm.ncsu.edu 2) That message showed up in a February 19, 2026 nonprofit workshop run by GRF and NC State, which hosted nearly 130 executives. The organizers said ERM is most effective when leadership and boards back it and when it is translated into actions, metrics, and culture. (grfcpa.com) Workshop notes pointed to a rise in overall risk severity for 2026 and urged scenario planning and a broader “system view.” The near-term themes listed were cyber and data security, third-party reliance, talent retention, artificial intelligence transformation, and economic and regulatory volatility. (grfcpa.com) The practical advice was specific. Organizers said companies should use key performance indicators and key risk indicators, report risks to boards in a sequence from the risk environment to results to financial performance, and align new initiatives with realistic capacity. (grfcpa.com) NC State’s upcoming Advanced ERM Workshop on June 17-18 in Raleigh turns those ideas into a formal agenda for senior leaders and directors. The program says participants will work on risk appetite, strategic planning, risk committees, reporting practices, and the human factors that can weaken ERM during uncertainty. (erm.ncsu.edu) That workshop is limited to 50 participants and costs $1,395 at the early-bird rate, rising to $1,495 after May 17. NC State says the course is aimed at chief executives, chief risk officers, chief financial officers, chief audit executives, controllers, and board members with some ERM experience. (erm.ncsu.edu) NC State’s broader 2026 programming uses similar language. Its Spring 2026 ERM Roundtable Summit on April 23 was billed as a forum on enterprise risk, board oversight, and organizational resilience, and its recent resource library has focused on risk communication, leadership pipelines, and “pull” rather than “push” adoption of ERM. (erm.ncsu.edu 1) (erm.ncsu.edu 2) The throughline is that boards are being asked to define risk appetite clearly, get risk information more often, and connect it to operating decisions. NC State’s own board-risk guidance says directors are responsible for making sure risk management aligns with business objectives and stakeholder expectations. (erm.ncsu.edu) The message from these sessions is not that volatility can be predicted. It is that organizations can build routines, metrics, and reporting lines that make faster decisions possible when volatility arrives. (grfcpa.com) (erm.ncsu.edu)