Customer Reviews

Fundamentals of Enterprise Risk Management: How Top Companies Assess Risk, Manage Exposure, and Seize Opportunity

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I purchased this book to gain foundation knowledge in ERM and Corporate Risk Management. My greatest concern with these types of texts is that they provide tons of theory and little practical application. I selected this book because NC State has it as a suggested reading for its ERM Masters courses.

Bottomline, if you are looking for a book to give you the theory and then provide concrete practical application, this is the book you want. If you are looking for a starting point to get your hands around the major topis of ERM, this is the book you want. Basically, the text allowed me to diagram a future state ERM program for my company, and challenge potential consultants to work with us on the implementation project.

Very well written.

Fully managing enterprise risk means more than insuring against fire, floods and other hazards. Companies commonly have many uninsured exposures to loss from tougher competition, rapid technological change, financial instability and regulatory sanctions. That is why business leaders in growing numbers have adopted enterprise risk management (ERM), a flexible way to identify and respond to a corporation's total range of risks. Not all risks are all bad. Some are worth taking. Firms that practice enterprise risk management can minimize their potential peril while taking their best calculated risks, the ones most likely to increase sales and profits. Enterprise risk management will not eliminate risk. It did not prevent the failures of major financial institutions during the 2008 crisis. But author John J. Hampton cogently upholds the practice, noting that a disciplined, detailed approach is critical to making ERM actually work. He favors a customizable model of risk management - including a central monitoring function - that can work for a company of any size. getAbstract recommends this book to business leaders seeking a more reliable way to identify each meaningful risk, to distinguish good risks from bad ones and to cover their downsides as much as possible.

This book is a systematic description of contemporary Enterprise Risk Management with new methodology. It is so visual and practical showing readers the qualities that managers all over the world need to get a clear idea of ERM and its benefits. Many real cases are included, even from Russia. But the most interesting part is "ERM Technology," a new approach to diagnose and visually present the family of core risks of any business. Supported by the ERM implementing instructions, this methodology makes the book a really practical guide for anyone interested in corporate risks. More than that, ERM realities are analyzed in the clear context of the modern challenges of making decent profits in an honest and ethical framework. Written in a clear language and supported by many illustrations (pictures and stories), I am sure that the book of Professor J. Hampton will be highly valuable to risk managers, general managers, and students of business globally.

Valery N. Vyatkin,
2003-2005 First Vice President
Russian Risk Management Society (RusRisk)

The activities described as risk management have been evolving over the past decades. Ask a finance person what risk management is and you will hear about hedging by diversification through financial instruments such as derivatives and stock pools. Ask an insurance person the same question and you will hear about insurance products. More recently accountants weight in with COSO and with discussions about governance and internal controls. IT-people think they are the risk managers of an enterprise. The logical path for all of these views is that there is, or needs to be, a central management function that has as a goal the optimization of a single ultimate metric of the success of the enterprise. Can the risk of loss from business interruption when a plant burns be hedged with insurance? Of course. Can the financial consequence also be hedged with a financial instrument other than insurance? Again, yes. But firm managers who strategically locate a set of plants in different areas also hedge the risk. The point is that there are many ways to manage the risk of an enterprise and a discussion that focuses too heavily on one approach does not advance the evolution of knowledge. Jack Hampton's text provides an advance in the evolving field of enterprise risk management. There is a heavy focus on the insurance and finance portions of the picture but just as all enterprises differ, there is no fixed answer to how to correctly weight the tools of risk management; it is an advance that he provides a picture of the variety of tools and how they should be used in combination.

J. Barrese
Chair, School of Risk Management
St. John's University

For the past three years, MBA candidates at Saint Peter's College have worked on various classroom and research projects within the realm of risk management. They looked at the Jet Blue 2007 Valentine's Day disruption, problems at Home Depot with a military-style management, and risks and opportunities that arose from the 2008 global financial crisis. The result was many new lessons that shaped how organizations think about risk. This book shares new ideas on the role of risk owners, a central risk function, and the use of technology to identify, monitor, and mitigate risks. It is an easy and valuable must-read for managers and professionals who seek new insights into the increasingly-important world of enterprise risk management.

Joyce M. Henson, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Business Administration
Saint Peter's College

The book takes the mystery out of ERM, offering an accessible, clear cut guide to incorporating ERM into the ongoing business of running a business. Hampton offers a comprehensive history of ERM, introduces tools, notably a new technology platform to systematically identify, analyze and visualize risk across a company and through compelling stories and anecdotes transforms ERM from a theory that risk managers have studied to a critical tool in the senior leader's toolbox. ERM is too important, Hampton writes, to relegate it to one office. His lessons learned: "Modern risk management does not end with the mitigation of an exposure. Always look for an upside" breathes fresh air and perspective into ERM, expanding ERM to the executive suite and board room.


Janice M. Abraham
President & CEO
United Educators

Dr. Hampton's new book on ERM is a breath of fresh air for the world of risk practitioners. So few good and useful texts are written in support of ERM best practices. This concise and well written work, presents the key aspects of this continually evolving discipline in a way atypical of most risk management works. Jack offers a five part view that crystallizes the key differences in practitioner's experiences and uses specific stories and examples from those who've "done it" for the benefit of those that haven't. What I hear from colleagues most often is: how have you done it and how might I learn from that? Using "lessons learned" as a thought provoking catalyst throughout, the reader will see how theory can be put into action and brought to life for their practice of risk. Recognizing as he does, that there is no single right way, readers can then leverage what could work in their world and see that certain approaches are better left to others in theirs.

Chris Mandel
2004 Risk Manager of the Year
Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas

If you are learning more about Enterprise Risk Management this is a must read! The book has real-life examples that suggest strategic ways in building an effective ERM model.