Establishing Business Appetite is Key to Success

We’ve all heard these words before: minimum viable product, tick the box for compliance, do enough to satisfy the regulator, tactical solution, imagine we are a FTSE 100 business, best in class.  These are all business appetite statements and can be applied across the business from system builds, to policy and procedural documents, to governance and control frameworks.

The one constant is that views of an organisation’s appetite for governance and control are likely to be different across stakeholders and dependent on which stage of evolution the organisation is in.  From the Board to the Executive Team, to the individuals responsible for running processes, alignment on appetite is key for a business to be successful. What does good look like and what is good enough are thought provoking discussion points at all levels of an organisation, however often get overlooked with the focus placed on firefighting key business issues.

To avoid being paralysed by the lack of alignment in your organisation, building a strong partnership with your second and third line teams is essential. Whilst I recognise that this is a strong statement for operational areas who often keep risk, audit and compliance at arms length, embracing these teams not only leads to improved clarity around what good looks like, but their support can also provide strong business cases for improvement and support resource and budget allocation.  And whilst this will not address all the issues regarding appetite, having their support and advice will mean a more joined up approach with a clear understanding of what good enough looks like which will allow the business to focus resources on the more value add activities.

If you would like some help understanding how your operational areas can benefit from a closer alignment with second and third line teams please contact [email protected]