risk and compliance in a way that helps drive it toward meeting its goals and
objectives, while also remaining alert to opportunities and agile enough to
act on them. The goal of governance is to break down barriers so that imple-
mentation of GRC is not done in a piecemeal fashion. GRC is not G or R or C
separately, but a unified and enduring system that is adopted throughout the
enterprise. The goal is to create a management system where all compliance
and risk structures, such as policies, processes, risk monitoring, controls, test
plans, remediation cases, and documentation are centrally managed to break
down obstacles that could hamper an integrated implementation of GRC.
Further, a strong governing framework takes into account the value of imple-
menting proactive and collaborative processes that balance opportunities
with financial, legal, and operational risks in a transparent manner.
Gleaning the Benefits of Good Governance ................................................
A strong governing framework has many benefits. Here are just a few:
Increased shareholder value:A properly functioning and documented
governing framework can provide corporate leaders with an increased
sense of security as they reflect on the efforts they are making toward
managing compliance and risk issues. Governance can also provide reas-
surance to those outside of the company by demonstrating the organiza-
tion’s capacity for understanding the need to manage risk and compliance
issues as well as its ability to institute a functioning GRC system. The
result can be measured in the strengthening of the company’s brand and
reputation, which translates into stronger shareholder value.
Lower overall costs:A unified and holistic approach to GRC also helps to
lower the overall yearly costs to managing a company’s risk and compli-
ance activities. For example, a GRC approach increases efficiency, allowing
a company to reduce the number of people dedicated to this function and
the number of hours required to carry out risk and compliance duties.
Improved financial performance:A strong governing framework facili-
tates transparency, giving company leaders a logical and structured
process to proactively and more effectively address risk scenarios and
compliance issues. Further, by providing the tools to mitigate risk
and manage compliance, companies can reduce performance
variability and increase overall financial performance.
Sustainability of efforts:Because a systematic framework is more effi-
cient and functional than a piecemeal approach, it is also far more sus-
tainable because it is less expensive from a human resources point of
view and is better able to adapt to an ever changing and increasingly
complicated business environment.
Chapter 3: Governance: GRC in Action 69
