Two years ago, the board of Juniper Networks, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of high-performance networking, decided it needed an integrated risk management program that would give board members and the executive management team greater oversight of risk management across the organization. As part of that process, and mindful of how Japan's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown exposed businesses' vulnerability to continuity disruption, Juniper's risk management committee looked at the company's own preparedness and its ability to support its customers.

As a result, Juniper was able to provide business continuity support to telecom companies covering this year's Olympics. It was a telling example of the advantages of setting up an integrated risk management program.

Instead of just bringing in a vendor and setting up an automated enterprise risk system, as many companies have done, $4.5 billion Juniper set about evaluating what its real operational and strategic risks were across the 46 countries it operates in, with the aim of creating a "risk-intelligent organization."