Risk From the CEO and Board Perspective: What All Managers Need to Know About Growth in a Turbulent World

KPMG's risk management advice is coupled with interesting, colorful and very enjoyable interviews with top executives at British Airways, Oracle, Microsoft, Sprint, shipping giant P&O and others. Even General Barry McCaffrey chimes in with his thoughts on business lessons from the battlefield.

In all, an engaging read that I recommend for my peers but not my competitors.


Extremely helpful and informative   March 22, 2004
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

This book is perfect for the times, an informative, interesting read with illustrative real-world examples. I particularly enjoyed Chapter 7 "We the People of the Board" and Chapter 8 "Audit Committee: Risk and Regulation" for the practical guidance insight provided. All in all, a digestible primer on key risk issues.


Good Review   August 27, 2009
Steven Miller (Charlotte NC)
I received the book in the condition that was stated and in timely manner. I would buy from them again.


Mixed Bag   April 30, 2006
Michael F. Murphy (Toronto, ON Canada)
Although it makes a reasonable attempt to cover the waterfront and there were were a few gems in this book, I found the fluff factor to be too high to give it more than three stars. Silly quotations, folksy homilies, and a tiresome reliance on quotes from people who didn't really didn't have brilliant insights and an entire chapter (the second) that was clearly 25 pages of pure and irrelevent padding mar an otherwise credible treatment of the subject.

For example, in the first (introductory) section, one of the three chapters is almost a throw-away; the other two being helpful but not brilliant. In the second section (50 pages) on mitigation, readers are presented with a pretty basic treatment of the subject, with only a few deep insights. The last section, which comprises 100 pages (or about 1/3 of the book) the authors make an attempt to focus on the meat of the matter. Again, I was disappointed that they did so in little more than a superficial manner. The copyright being held by KPMG, I had to wonder if the soft-pedalling of the spectacular failures of executive, board and internal audit of the recent past were glossed over in the interests of not offending any current or potential clients.

While the authors occasionally make effective use of analogy, such as comparing risk to water, which can be channelled to good effect, there were parts I disagreed with (for instance, the role of the external auditor, much of which I believe can and should be performed by the internal auditors)

In summary, it is broad and reasoned enough to be credible, but not sufficiently insightful or scholarly to be held up as a classic in the important and ever-evolving area of corporate governance. A tip-off should have been a glance at the scanty endnotes; one of them being from the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvannia. Not to disparage theology (which goes largely unheralded as being the grandfather of risk management), but had the authors dealt more with the gritty aspects of CEO/Board success and failure with risk and tapped into the rich veins professional literature that has arisen over the last 2-3 decades (instead of skating over it) this book might have earned at least one more star. There is certainly no shortage of material from which to draw.