“With PAGER, we created a custom risk taxonomy based on both our business value chain and our functional business model. We organised the taxonomy from strategy to function, providing a broader way to look at risk for everybody in the organisation.

“We then set out to align our new risk taxonomy to our executive leadership. The goal is that each parent category is owned by one executive. The ability to put our risk ecosystem on a single page was really powerful and it started a lot of discussion.

“Risks are increasingly interconnected and it is easy to end up with gaps in accountability. Contemporary topics like Privacy, Climate, AI – where should they sit in a taxonomy and who is responsible? PAGER helped us to work through those issues.

“As we dove deeper into each category with the business, the taxonomy prompted conversations about not only where accountability resided but also where the business felt ‘level 3’ buckets may be required.

“These conversations fostered deeper engagement from the business, surfacing nuances in risk exposure that might otherwise have been overlooked and reinforcing common language across the business.

“Next, we completed a risk appetite overlay on our new taxonomy. That was fantastic. We went from statements that were a mixture of appetite, principles and aspirations to something really clean. People could understand our appetite easily across all categories.

“The process of defining our four levels of appetite, as guided by PAGER, was also really valuable. It became a great tool to help our board understand not just where they wanted to manage downside, but where they wanted our company to lean in, to take risk to grow.

“Again, the visual of all our risk appetite on a single slide was terrific. It gave the board a big picture of where we are risk averse and where we are (or want to be) risk-taking.

“Finally, the overall approach helped us to clarify the three lines of defense in our business. By clearly aligning executive accountability to value chain and function (via the taxonomy), it became easier to explain the second line responsibility of supplying the global standards and frameworks versus the first line responsibility of ensuring they are applied correctly.

“Our third line are then able to use the appetite definitions as a tool to prioritise their internal audit planning and link their program of work where independent assurance may be required. And they are looking to tie back their findings to our taxonomy providing a line of sight between internal audit assurance work and risk exposures.

“The experience has been a great way to educate on risk throughout the business and I do not think we would be where we are today if not for PAGER.”