Boards and Risks
Risk awareness and supervision are among the primary duties of boards, yet many do not have a systematic approach to risk thinking, which undermines their ability to make critical decisions. Organizations face a growing set of enormous risks in today’s context: uncertainty resulting from geopolitical turbulence, evolving social dynamics, climate change tensions, and rapid technological developments.
IMD’s Boards and Risks program enables you, an aspiring or current board member, to familiarize yourself with the tools necessary to fulfill your responsibilities and develop a best-in-class approach to risk that is clearly distinct from executive risk thinking. Through an interactive learning experience featuring simulations, explore how corporations are dealing with the evolution of risk, including issues raised by sophisticated technologies such as AI, and broaden your knowledge of risk assessment techniques.
Developed and led by the IMD Global Board Center, this program is grounded in the latest insights and best practices, empowering you to lead the future of governance with confidence and foresight.
The science behind risk management
Decoding the science of risk can help you rise above instinct and master the art of taking calculated, transformative risks. “Risk management is not about avoiding risks, it’s about deciding which risks have to be taken. The ability to identify the right risks, or ‘big bets’, as I like to call them, is what sets innovative leaders apart from traditional ones,” says Arturo Bris, Program Director and Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center.
CEO, APM Terminals Independent NED and Board Member at various companies, The Netherlands
The program has been very impactful. It showed me the importance of having conversations around the absolute fundamentals of risk and not overlooking these by assuming they’re in place. I now see how crucial it is to actually use governance as a tool to drive value creation and strategy, which is a significant change in mindset.
Head of HR, A.P. Møller Holding Board Member at Maersk Tankers and ZeroNorth, Denmark
Risk was the area where I felt I had the least knowledge and I really wanted to know how we should be working. The models were very relevant and applicable, and I went away with a lot of specific tools to do better.
Vice-Chair, Board of Directors, Vontobel Swiss Financial Advisors AG, Switzerland
The more training you have on risks, the more you know how to make informed and well-balanced decisions if things go in the wrong direction. Boards and Risks provides a heightened awareness of the risks to look out for as a board member; it broadens your knowledge of what you are responsible for.
Global Chief Human Resources Officer, Louis Dreyfus Company, Singapore
Understanding risk from a board’s standpoint and managing expectations when it comes to risk has been a game-changer.
Executive Chairman, Thejo Engineering Limited, India
A board’s job is to manage risk, and the program helped us to structure risk in various categories in order to effectively implement risk mitigation.
Navigating risk governance
- The governance of risk best practices
- Organizational wrongdoing & risk
- Supervisory versus management risk thinking
- Cyber risk simulation
Elevating risk management
- Risk brainstorming
- Dealing with non-traditional risks
- Strategic risks
- Regime shifts & uncertainty management
- Latest approaches to risks and risk appetite
Length: 2 days on campus.
Two pathways to board excellence
