DePaul University Ezerski Chair and Accountancy Professor Mark L. FrigoWhat skills do financial executives need to manage risk
successfully in a rapidly changing business environment?
To answer this question, DePaul University Ezerski Chair and
Accountancy Professor Mark L. Frigo and Paul L. Walker, Schiro/Zurich Chair in
Enterprise Risk Management at St. John’s University, conducted interviews with
financial executives from top companies.
“The scope of CFOs’ responsibilities toward enterprise risk
management has been expanding,” Frigo says. “We wanted to identify the
capabilities that CFOs need to have today, as well as tomorrow, to manage risk
and anticipate disruptions before they impact organizations.”
CFOs and other executives from Microsoft, Oracle, Boeing,
Dow Chemical, Martin Marietta, Coca-Cola and Pitney Bowes were among the
leaders interviewed. Based on these interviews, the researchers identified four
things financial executives must be able to do:
Proactively recognize the sources of enterprise disruption.
- Develop insights and an enterprise-wide understanding of their organizations’ risk profiles and capabilities to manage risk.
- Think and communicate strategically.
- Create a forward-thinking, strategic finance organization.
Frigo and Walker’s research report, “The Strategic Financial
Executive: Managing Enterprise Risk in a Disruptive World,” was sponsored by
Grant Thornton and published by the Financial Executives Research Foundation. Click
here to read a report summary.
Learn more about
DePaul’s MS in Enterprise Risk Management.