GRC as a strategy for managing governance, risk, and compliance throughout an entire organization is far from a new concept. It’s something that enterprise businesses have been working on—in one form or another—for a long time.
The issue is most organizations still aren’t doing it well.
Part of the problem is certainly a lack of understanding what exactly “doing GRC well” looks like.
GRC is not a binary activity. It isn’t done or not done. There are various levels to its implementation which ascend from being in dire risk of compliance and security breaches to being an exemplary and efficient example of GRC strategy in the business world.
If you’ve been following along with our five-part series (start here if you haven’t ), you’ll know we refer to this as the journey to GRC maturity.
The following GRC Maturity Model outline the five stages businesses go through and the steps they must take to achieve effective maturity.
Stage 1: Siloed
This is the line from which most established enterprise companies start.
In the siloed stage your organization has activities in place to manage risk, but these activities are fragmented, isolated along departmental lines, and manual.
The approach here isn’t deficient per se, but the lack of coordination across functions can cause cracks and communication breakdowns that open the door to compliance concerns and security breaches.
Stage 2: Transitioning
Realizing the risk of siloed departments and GRC strategies, in the transitioning stage organizational activities begin to focus on improving effectiveness, stabilizing processes, expanding scope, and of course knocking down mental and physical business silos. Here is when you begin evolving critical capabilities for GRC maturity.
Stage 3: Managed
The managed stage marks the point at which your organization’s operational processes are coordinated, sustainable, and repeatable. Congrats, you’ve said goodbye to silos!
Your GRC program is now working more effectively and achieving many of its objectives. However, you still have some ground to cover if your goal in this stage is to connect your GRC maturity program to each department’s—and eventually your entire business’—strategy and goals.
Stage 4: Transformed
Now we’re really getting somewhere! In this stage, the transformative initiatives that you’ve been striving to develop are being executed to build better connections between risk management and business as a whole.
Right now your processes are digitized, you’re well on your way to full digital transformation, and the organization is setting the stage for advanced capabilities.
Stage 5: Advantaged
At the advantaged stage, processes are optimized and balanced by business context and risk priorities. In other words, managing risk and compliance have become part of business operations and the organization is reaping the rewards of a coordinated program.
It’s important to note that this stage is not unattainable by any means. GRC maturity is perfectly attainable for organizations that assign it importance and priority.
A major part of a successful GRC maturity journey is getting all the right people and parties involved to recognize that it is, in fact, a journey. It requires a continuous commitment of time and resources to see it through.
What stage do you think your organization is currently in? What steps do you need help with to get you to the next level?
If you need a boost to make it to stage 5, contact the risk management experts at Cask. We can walk you through how to get every aspect of your GRC processes in check or handle it for you end-to-end.
And don’t forget to stay tuned for the final installment of this five-part guide to achieving digitally-transformed, mature GRC.
