New Delhi: Risk management must be driven by the understanding of what is good for the corporate, said M Damodaran, Chairperson, Excellence Enablers and former Chairman, SEBI, at the release of the FICCI – GRMI Model Risk Code. “The success of the risk code will be when people look at it, not as a direction or something that is mandated, but as the distilled wisdom of persons in corporate India and see how to apply that to their own corporate,” he said.

SEBI mandates that the top 1000 companies listed must have risk management procedures. However, while releasing the Model Code, Mr Damodaran said risk management could be a voluntary exercise for others. “I am not a great believer in something being drafted into law”, he said, adding that if they don’t see the value, it might end up as one more tick box,” but whether it will add to corporate well-being is suspect.”

Siddharth Birla, Past President, FICCI, said evaluating and addressing risk is a critical attention area for boards. “Any framework that helps businesses take more informed and risk-intelligent decisions should be most welcome,” he said. In this context, he added, the Model Risk Code addresses entities of all sizes, including non-listed and private entities and can be of great significance in building risk maturity, should they choose to draw upon the Code.

Subhashis Nath, Founder and CEO, GRMI, former SVP and Service Line Leader – Enterprise Risk and Compliance, Genpact, said that there is a significantly increased expectation from the corporate world, which requires corporate India to be more resilient, agile, and future proof. He added, “The model risk code intends to be a playbook, a guide or toolkit, to ensure boards and CEOs have an effective enabler to embed risk into their DNA.” 

Anita George, Independent Director, Piramal Enterprise, former Executive Vice President and Deputy Head of CDPQ Global, said that while the risk was always there, the pace, unpredictability, volatility, and the myriad types of risks that are coming at us are making us aware that we need to have someone in the organisation who is firefighting, not just on a day-to-day basis, but more strategically.

Richard Rekhy, Board Member of KPMG Dubai and former CEO of KPMG India, noted that the risk management is entirely about the business and has to be led by the CEO. Mukesh Butani, Founding and Managing Partner, BMR Legal, Prof Rajan Saxena, former Vice Chancellor of SVKM’s NMIMS, and Ritu Chawla Kochhar, India Head, Spencer Stuart, also spoke on occasion. /BI/