ERM in practice

Within the current climate of ever-increasing corporate uncertainty, enterprise risk management (ERM) has emerged as a new paradigm for managing risk. To investigate how internal audit groups are participating in this process, five dynamic organizations that have successfully implemented ERM programs were studied. Specifically, this study examined the role of internal auditing at these organizations, the impact of ERM on auditing's work, and the ways in which corporate governance was strengthened accordingly. The companies - FirstEnergy Corp., General Motors Corp., WalMart Stores Inc., Unocal Corp., and Canada Post Corp. - represent a diverse range of industries, and each involved internal auditing as an integral part of its ERM efforts. Chief audit executives (CAE) are uniquely positioned to serve as ERM champions at their companies, and each of the CAEs at the five organizations examined in this article left his or her own indelible mark on the ERM process.