Holistic risk management: perspectives from IT professionals

An Economist Intelligence Unit research program commissioned by IBM

Introduction

Global organizations are increasingly emphasizing business resilience, that is, the ability to adapt rapidly to a continuously changing business environment. This movement has led to important changes in the roles of IT professionals as they become progressively more engaged in managing all types of risk confronting the organization.

That was the conclusion of Key trends driving global business resilience and risk, a report written in September 2011 by the Economist Intelligence Unit for IBM ¬based on an EIU survey of nearly 400 executives worldwide. That study also found that traditional business continuity plans—typically with a strong IT focus – remain critical, even as they become part of a bigger picture and senior executives strengthen their oversight of enterprise-wide risk management.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents polled in the survey agreed that senior IT executives are expected to play a stronger role in developing their organization’s business resilience strategy. This perception was even more pronounced among CIOs and technology directors, with only 12% disagreeing. Holistic risk management: perspectives from IT professionals, a follow-on study, takes a closer look at these findings through an IT prism. This report examines how the drive toward more holistic risk management is a!ecting the day-to-day work of business continuity planners, IT risk managers and security executives.

Please download the full release at first-press-release-20120502.pdf