M.Phil. / The premise of this research study was to study the phenomenon of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) in order to understand the processes and practices of risk management within First National Bank (FNB). Risk management became a favourite topic for discussion in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Some analysts, chief financial officers and observers have noted that risk management is to blame for the economic recession and myriad of bank failures that ensue. However, the intention of this research study was not to analyse the GFC or to devote itself entirely to defend risk management and risk managers.

Credit risk mitigation that can be applied by commercial banks in assessing the lending decision /credit risk when advances and equity investments are considered for BEE classified companies. / A research report presented to the Graduate School of Business Leadership, University of South Africa / The previous political dispensation limited black people’s participation in the South African economy. Poor credit records, lack of training, resulting in skills and capacity gaps further limited entry into the lending market. These aspects are considered the main limitations in obtaining finance for the Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs). This research report focuses on how credit risk can be mitigated by commercial banks in lending to Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) companies in the medium to large market. Exploratory research was conducted using various methods to achieve methodological triangulation. These methods consisted of a literature review, interviewing experts in the field and case studies. A qualitative research approach was followed. It was found that the lack of own contribution and security were still prevalent in the medium to large market, but the quality of management (little training and skills) was deemed not to be a limitation as suitable credit risk mitigants were identified. No credit risk mitigants were identified to mitigate poor credit records. It is postulated that by adopting and applying the identified credit risk mitigants, commercial banks can increase their success rate in lending to BEE companies. It will further assist in the transformation of black people and compliance with the Financial Services Charter. It is recommended that a similar study be conducted in the agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing industry. The reasons why BEE companies applications are declined could also be investigated. Further studies could also explore other external factors such as economical, legal and social that could have an influence on the funding of BEE companies.

The research question and phenomenon that is addressed by this research study is: “What is the perceived importance and level of acceptance of ERM in the South African business environment, and what is the perceived value of ERM in South African organisations?” The definition of ERM utilised throughout this research study is: “Enterprise Risk Management is a process, effected by an entity’s board of directors, management and other personnel, applied in strategy setting and across the enterprise, designed to identify potential events that may affect the entity, and manage risk to be within its risk appetite, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of business objectives”. (Committee of Sponsoring Organisations of the Treadway Commission – COSO, 2004: 4) Enterprise Risk Management is perceived by many as being a necessity, but a burden to business caused by increased investor confidence requirements, such as adherence to King II, Basel II, JSE listing requirements, and the Public Finance Management Act in South Africa, and Sarbanes Oxley requirements placed on organisations listed in the USA, resulting primarily from recent international corporate failures. This causes ERM to be implemented for compliance reasons without obtaining the true value that ERM provides. The main research problem is therefore to firstly identify the extent of acceptance and implementation of ERM in organisations in the South African business environment, secondly identify the reasons why organisations implement ERM in these organisations, and thirdly identify factors that describe the perceived value that ERM provides to these organisations. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBL

The research question and phenomenon that is addressed by this research study is: “What is the perceived importance and level of acceptance of ERM in the South African business environment, and what is the perceived value of ERM in South African organisations?” The definition of ERM utilised throughout this research study is: “Enterprise Risk Management is a process, effected by an entity’s board of directors, management and other personnel, applied in strategy setting and across the enterprise, designed to identify potential events that may affect the entity, and manage risk to be within its risk appetite, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of business objectives”. (Committee of Sponsoring Organisations of the Treadway Commission – COSO, 2004: 4) Enterprise Risk Management is perceived by many as being a necessity, but a burden to business caused by increased investor confidence requirements, such as adherence to King II, Basel II, JSE listing requirements, and the Public Finance Management Act in South Africa, and Sarbanes Oxley requirements placed on organisations listed in the USA, resulting primarily from recent international corporate failures. This causes ERM to be implemented for compliance reasons without obtaining the true value that ERM provides. The main research problem is therefore to firstly identify the extent of acceptance and implementation of ERM in organisations in the South African business environment, secondly identify the reasons why organisations implement ERM in these organisations, and thirdly identify factors that describe the perceived value that ERM provides to these organisations. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBL

Background: As companies are operating in more globally and complex environments, the need for risk control is accelerating. In an ever-changing environment, companies cannot merely focus on traditional risks, which include financial and insurable risks. To maintain competitiveness, companies need to extend their risk management to include all risks, traditional as well as operational and strategic risks. Purpose: The purpose is to describe and position risk management for Telecom operators, in comparison with the risk management literature, with regards to structure, processes, learning process, visions and benefits. In addition, our aim is to link risk management perspectives with the different strategies for knowledge management. Method: The approach taken is a hermeneutic case study, in which a total of 13 in-depth interviews with three different Telecom operators have been carried out. Results: The main findings are that the Telecom operators have developed their risk management to the business risk management perspective. There are some indications however that the companies are focusing on widening their risk management to the Enterprise-Wide perspective. The degree of the environments complexity, in which companies are operating, is determining the need for different risk management perspectives. To maintain their competitiveness in a highly complex environment a wider risk management perspective is needed. This includes operational and strategic risks, which are non-quantifiable. Therefore the personalization strategy is to recommend for achieving an effective risk management. A less complex environment, on the other hand, can mainly focus on the traditional risks. These risks are quantifiable, and therefore the codification strategy is to prefer.

In today’s world, project risk management has always been a complex topic, especially inconstruction industry; thus managing project risks is required as compulsory for anyconstruction project to be successful. This master thesis presents a critical analysis ofproject risk management and significant impacts of its application on the success of aspecific project’s delivery. It identifies different types of project risk managementprocesses and frameworks used by construction projects. In order to examine how risk andrisk management process is perceived in construction projects, a case study of a LeheHome reconstruction project is chosen and data collection methods of semi-structuredinterviews and questionnaires are applied. The main purpose of this thesis is to explore,describe and analyze the perceived risk management practice in Lehe Home reconstructionproject. Managing risks in Lehe Home project has been recognised as a very importantproject management process in order to achieve the project objectives in terms of time,cost, quality. The study will examine and evaluate the risk management process in specificphases of Lehe Home project and essentially analyze the empirical findings. Finally, thestudy generalizes and develops the project risk analysis and management from Lehe Homeproject and suggests for public sectors to help project managers to make better decisionsunder risky conditions.

Background: The implementation of procurement concepts such as JIT or singlesourcing have resulted in the emergence of new supply risks forautomotive suppliers. The economic crisis in 2008 and volatiledemand in recent years had enormous impact on the sector.Consequently, in association with lean purchasing models, newdimensions of supply risks have emerged. This creates the need forautomotive suppliers to adapt and improve their supply riskmanagement in response to the increased risk potential. There hasbeen no research on how automotive suppliers have furtherdeveloped their supply risk management recently. Purpose: The purpose is to examine how automotive suppliers have adaptedtheir supply risk management in response to the fluctuatingeconomy since 2008. Frame of reference: In this section the Kraljic matrix and the risk management processare presented. The theories lead to a synthesis including the researchquestions for fulfilling the purpose. Method: This research is based on a qualitative multiple case study. In orderto gather the necessary in-depth data, four automotive suppliersfrom Germany and Northern Europe were interviewed by theauthors. Conclusions: Automotive suppliers have clearly reacted on increasedconsequences of supply risks. The general grown awareness andsensitivity have lead to the implementation of new managementtools. Particularly the cooperation between supply chain membershas considerably intensified and contributed to a better riskreduction. Moreover, the financial stability of vendors has risen inimportance and is considered more thoroughly. All the instrumentsand methods may, however, be more powerful and efficient ifautomotive suppliers had standardized and linked them into aconsecutive process.

<p>Background: As companies are operating in more globally and complex environments, the need for risk control is accelerating. In an ever-changing environment, companies cannot merely focus on traditional risks, which include financial and insurable risks. To maintain competitiveness, companies need to extend their risk management to include all risks, traditional as well as operational and strategic risks. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose is to describe and position risk management for Telecom operators, in comparison with the risk management literature, with regards to structure, processes, learning process, visions and benefits. In addition, our aim is to link risk management perspectives with the different strategies for knowledge management. </p><p>Method: The approach taken is a hermeneutic case study, in which a total of 13 in-depth interviews with three different Telecom operators have been carried out. </p><p>Results: The main findings are that the Telecom operators have developed their risk management to the business risk management perspective. There are some indications however that the companies are focusing on widening their risk management to the Enterprise-Wide perspective. The degree of the environments complexity, in which companies are operating, is determining the need for different risk management perspectives. To maintain their competitiveness in a highly complex environment a wider risk management perspective is needed. This includes operational and strategic risks, which are non-quantifiable. Therefore the personalization strategy is to recommend for achieving an effective risk management. A less complex environment, on the other hand, can mainly focus on the traditional risks. These risks are quantifiable, and therefore the codification strategy is to prefer.</p>

Credit risk mitigation that can be applied by commercial banks in assessing the lending decision /credit risk when advances and equity investments are considered for BEE classified companies. / A research report presented to the Graduate School of Business Leadership, University of South Africa / The previous political dispensation limited black people’s participation in the South African economy. Poor credit records, lack of training, resulting in skills and capacity gaps further limited entry into the lending market. These aspects are considered the main limitations in obtaining finance for the Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs). This research report focuses on how credit risk can be mitigated by commercial banks in lending to Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) companies in the medium to large market. Exploratory research was conducted using various methods to achieve methodological triangulation. These methods consisted of a literature review, interviewing experts in the field and case studies. A qualitative research approach was followed. It was found that the lack of own contribution and security were still prevalent in the medium to large market, but the quality of management (little training and skills) was deemed not to be a limitation as suitable credit risk mitigants were identified. No credit risk mitigants were identified to mitigate poor credit records. It is postulated that by adopting and applying the identified credit risk mitigants, commercial banks can increase their success rate in lending to BEE companies. It will further assist in the transformation of black people and compliance with the Financial Services Charter. It is recommended that a similar study be conducted in the agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing industry. The reasons why BEE companies applications are declined could also be investigated. Further studies could also explore other external factors such as economical, legal and social that could have an influence on the funding of BEE companies.

The objective of the study is to establish a perspective of risk management by doing an assessment of current risk management practices, especially in the aftermath of the 2008/2009 global financial crisis. Risk management, as a component of corporate governance, was analysed by addressing the following: - The nature of value-creating assets in business; - The primary challenges for risk management over the next three years; - The changing approaches towards risk management; - The role of legislation and external stakeholders; - The role of risk management in strategic planning; - The cost of risk management; and - The benefits of improved risk management capabilities. A survey was conducted in the form of a questionnaire in order to obtain primary information from business owners on the current role of risk management in their organisations as well as their view on the role of risk management going forward. Businesses operating in the Port Elizabeth and surrounding area with an existing relationship with Absa Business Banking Services participated in the study. Quantitative techniques were used to analyse the data that were obtained from the sample group. The study revealed that the role of risk management in enterprises is evolving into an integrated, enterprise wide risk management function that can be utilised as a source of competitive advantage, from both a funding perspective for Banks and a business perspective for business owners. Capitalising on risk management as a competitive advantage will ultimately lead to long term sustainability and profitability of South African business enterprises and the South African Banking system.