AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

Risk management is an important factor in ensuring business and project success. Thus, risk management methodologies are constantly being developed and improved. In order to define the goals, specify the process and manage progress, it is necessary to have a clear view of the enterprise‟s current approach to risk, as well as a definition of the intended destination. Benchmarking offers the opportunity to determine the current maturity capability against agreed frameworks, and also provides a structured route to improvement. A generally accepted framework is needed in order for an organisation to benchmark its current maturity and capability in managing risk, and this framework should also assist in defining progress towards increased maturity. Being an assessment tool, a risk maturity model is designed to measure risk management capability and to provide objectives for improvement The purpose of the research is to identify, adapt and recommend a sound risk maturity model, together with an easily applicable and effective questionnaire for use to measure the risk capability maturity of a Life Insurer (“Liberty Life”). To achieve this aim, six risk management maturity models were identified through a literature review and the proposed model was further supported with long-term insurance specific attributes of risk management as advocated by leading corporate governance codes and regulations such as King III and the newly proposed Financial Services Board (FSB) Solvency Assessment and Management (SAM) regime. Despite the widening consensus on the value of risk management, effective implementations of risk processes into organisations are not common. The benefits of mature risk management have been discussed in Chapter 2. By adopting an exploratory approach, the researcher conducted a qualitative research project, in the form of an in-depth case study, on a multinational financial services organisation. Unstructured face-to-face interviews were held with senior executives and risk managers in order to gather data regarding what they perceive as key attributes, including acceptable measurement criteria, of a risk maturity model appropriate and effective for implementation in their organisation.