Research and Advice for Boards, and their Audit and Risk Committees
According to the U.S. Census, the average lifetime for companies today is well under ten years and getting shorter, as the competitive environment becomes ever more complex, fast-changing and uncertain. Deloitte's "Shift Index" publications reach a similar conclusion, noting that today "the rapid rate at which companies suffer declines in ROA ranking reflects the rise in competitive intensity." Even the largest companies are not immune to these trends. Analyses of the rate of turnover of companies included in the Fortune 500 and S&P 500 indexes reach the same conclusions about the rapidly rising risk to corporate success and survival. For example, a recent Innosight report found that the average tenure of a company's membership in the S&P 500 fell from 61 years in 1958 to just 18 years today.
Occasionally, a Board, Audit/Risk Committee Chair, or management team will want to receive an analysis, or set of analyses (i.e., the Red Team/Blue Team approach frequently used by intelligence agencies) on a critical trend or uncertainty that could significantly affect a company's strategic risk exposure, and, in some cases, potentially threaten its survival. At other times, a Director may simply want to talk through his or her evolving view of a strategic risk governance issue.
Britten Coyne Partners provides this service, either on a "one-off" basis, or as part of our ongoing strategic risk/early warning indicator monitoring and reporting service.