Overcoming Implementation Challenges for Non-risk Specialists

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) has become an essential business function across all sectors, but implementation often falls to senior executives whose primary expertise lies elsewhere. As organizations face increasingly interconnected risks in 2025, these non-specialist leaders encounter unique implementation challenges.

This article explores the specific obstacles faced by legal, compliance, audit, finance, and operations executives when tasked with establishing an ERM program, and provides actionable strategies for transforming these challenges into strategic advantages.

The Critical Role of Enterprise Risk Management in 2025

Organizations today operate in an environment of unprecedented complexity, heightened regulatory scrutiny, and evolving stakeholder expectations. Traditional siloed approaches to risk management have become obsolete as businesses face increasingly interconnected threats spanning cybersecurity, supply chain disruptions, evolving regulatory environments, reputational challenges, and geopolitical risks. A holistic ERM framework provides the systematic approach needed for proactively identifying, assessing, and managing enterprise-wide risks, transforming potential threats into strategic opportunities that support value creation and sustainable growth.

The Head of Legal's Perspective: Beyond Compliance

When legal leaders take charge of ERM initiatives, they often approach risk primarily through a regulatory and liability lens. While legal expertise brings valuable insights regarding compliance obligations and potential litigation exposures, this narrow focus can leave organizations vulnerable to operational, strategic, and emerging risks that fall outside traditional legal domains.

Legal leaders typically excel at detailed documentation and procedural rigor but may struggle with quantitative risk assessment methodologies that require statistical analysis or financial modeling. Furthermore, their professional training often emphasizes risk avoidance rather than strategic risk-taking, potentially constraining business innovation and growth opportunities.

To overcome these challenges, legal executives should partner with operational and business unit leaders to develop a more balanced risk posture, invest in training on quantitative risk methodologies, and consciously reframe risk management as a business enabler rather than merely a protective function.

The Chief Compliance Officer's Dilemma: Rules vs. Strategy

Compliance officers bring deep expertise in regulatory requirements and control frameworks, but when leading ERM programs, they often encounter difficulties expanding their focus beyond regulatory compliance. Their professional orientation toward prescribed rules and standards can create tension with the need for business flexibility and calculated risk-taking.

The rigidity that makes compliance officers excellent at ensuring adherence to regulations can become an impediment when risk management needs to adapt to changing business conditions or support innovation. Additionally, compliance professionals typically measure success by the absence of negative outcomes rather than by enabling positive business results.

Successful compliance leaders can overcome these limitations by developing a formal risk program that encompasses strategic and operational risks alongside compliance concerns, implementing risk-based approaches that allow for greater flexibility in lower-risk activities, and creating a risk appetite statement that explicitly identifies areas where calculated risk-taking is encouraged to drive growth.

The Head of Audit's Challenge: From Historical to Forward-Looking

Audit executives bring valuable experience in control testing and process evaluation to ERM leadership but often struggle to shift from backward-looking control assessment to forward-looking risk anticipation. Their professional training emphasizes evidence-based evaluation of existing controls rather than predictive identification of emerging risks.

The documentation-heavy, process-oriented approach that serves audit well can create excessive bureaucracy in risk management programs, potentially reducing stakeholder engagement. Additionally, the traditional "policing" mindset of audit can create resistance when collaboration is essential for effective risk identification and mitigation.

To succeed in ERM leadership, audit executives should incorporate scenario analysis and predictive modeling into their risk methodologies, invest in technology solutions that streamline documentation while maintaining necessary rigor, and consciously reposition their function as strategic advisors rather than compliance enforcers.

The CFO's Perspective: Balancing the Books and the Risks

Financial leaders bring strong quantitative skills and business acumen to ERM initiatives but often overemphasize financial and quantifiable risks while undervaluing intangible threats like reputation, culture, or emerging technologies. Their professional orientation toward measurable financial outcomes can create blind spots regarding risks that don't fit neatly into financial models.

CFOs typically view risk management as a cost center rather than a value creator, potentially limiting investment in risk infrastructure and capabilities. Their focus on quarterly financial metrics may also lead to underinvestment in longer-term risk resilience measures that don't show immediate returns.

To overcome these limitations, finance executives should develop assessment frameworks for intangible risks that translate them into financial terms through impact scenario analysis, implement risk-adjusted performance metrics that demonstrate the value of risk management, and create dedicated funding mechanisms for long-term risk investments within the capital allocation process.

The COO's Challenge: Structure Amid Complexity

Operations leaders bring practical business knowledge and execution focus to ERM leadership but often lack structured methodologies for consistent risk assessment across diverse business functions. Their problem-solving orientation may lead to ad hoc risk responses rather than systematic approaches that address root causes.

COOs typically focus on current operational challenges rather than emerging threats that could disrupt the business in the future. Additionally, their drive for operational efficiency can create tension with risk management requirements that may initially appear to add process steps or slow decision-making.

Successful operations executives overcome these challenges by implementing standardized risk frameworks (like COSO or ISO 31000) adapted to organizational needs, establishing formal emerging risk identification processes including external scanning and industry benchmarking, and integrating risk considerations directly into operational excellence initiatives.

Effective Enterprise Risk Management Strategies for Non-Specialists in 2025

Regardless of functional background, senior executives leading ERM initiatives can leverage these proven approaches to overcome implementation challenges:

Invest in targeted risk management education and certification programs that complement your existing expertise while filling knowledge gaps. Establish a cross-functional risk governance structure with representation from all key business units to overcome departmental silos and ensure comprehensive risk identification. Implement modern ERM technology platforms that provide AI-assisted risk identification, automated documentation, and intuitive dashboards that transform complex data into actionable insights.

Develop a formal risk maturity model that provides a structured pathway for your organization's ERM evolution, with clear milestones to measure progress. Integrate risk considerations directly into strategic planning processes to demonstrate how effective risk management creates competitive advantage rather than just mitigating threats. Consider partnering with specialized risk management consultants during program establishment to accelerate implementation and incorporate industry best practices tailored to your specific sector.

Conclusion: Transforming ERM Challenges into Strategic Advantages

While non-specialists tasked with implementing ERM programs face significant obstacles, their diverse functional backgrounds provide unique perspectives that can enhance risk management effectiveness. Legal leaders bring crucial regulatory insights, compliance officers contribute control framework expertise, audit executives offer systematic evaluation methodologies, financial leaders provide quantitative analytical skills, and operations executives ground risk management in practical business realities.

The successful implementation of an ERM program in 2025 requires acknowledging functional limitations while strategically leveraging existing strengths. By adopting the structured approaches outlined in this article, non-specialist leaders can develop enterprise risk management capabilities that not only protect organizational value but significantly enhance it. The ultimate goal is creating an integrated risk framework that is both technically robust and seamlessly aligned with strategic business objectives.

Effective ERM implementation has become a critical competitive differentiator. Organizations that successfully navigate the challenges of establishing comprehensive risk management under non-specialist leadership will be better positioned to anticipate threats, capitalize on opportunities, and achieve sustainable growth in an increasingly uncertain business environment.

Ready to transform your risk management approach? At Risk Llama, we've designed our platform specifically to empower both risk specialists and non-risk executives to implement and manage robust ERM programs in minutes, not months. Discover how we can help you turn your functional expertise into a strategic risk advantage. Contact us today to begin your organization's risk transformation journey.