In the "new world," where risks need to be considered and weighed with a broader perspective, the company may approach such a decision from a new angle, weighing not only the pure cost of the hardware and airtime, but also potential loss to other areas:

What about employees talking or texting on the mobile phone while driving or walking, increasing their risk of first- or third-party accidents? Might this warrant additional auto liability insurance for the company? Or should the company at least make sure that accidents caused while talking or texting are not excluded from corporate insurance policies? This may impact the corporate HR, corporate risk or other insurance-buying departments.

What happens if the phone is stolen or lost? Might there be breaches of confidential corporate information, trade secrets, or legally-protected customer data, especially for smart phones used to send and receive routine company emails with attachments and data exhibits? Are there IT security, data protection and privacy policies and procedures which need to be put in place to ensure that such risks are appropriately mitigated?
Might there be tax deductions potentially available (or not) to companies for phones as corporate physical assets offsetting some of the dollar costs? This could be a major consideration for the finance or accounting areas.
Taken to extreme, the analysis could even go as far as to consider the risk of potential future personal injury from radiation due to cell phone use, as the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer Epidemiology continues to research mobile phones as a possible cause of cancer. Could this risk eventually increase group medical insurance costs for companies where corporate phones are routinely issued?
Make time for that first baby step. Look at the stories of today and list out the answers to the question, "What is the best and worst that could happen from this occurrence or event?" This can bring home the message that important corporate decisions can be impacted in multiple ways, through several departments by risks, flowing through multiple areas in the company.
Once this foundational principle is mastered, it is easier to move to the next step of talking about risk assessment or quantification, and control or mitigation techniques. Down the road, more complex ERM concepts such as using gathered data for strategic decision making, operational improvements and financial planning can be considered, on more solid footing.

Instant Insights /

Embedding the ERM Message: Making it Real

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