Prof. Narayan to speak on ‘Risks in Today’s Boardroom’ at ICA National Conference

A much sought after speaker and faculty member in the Finance and Control Area of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB), Prof P. C. Narayan who will be one of the six paper presenters at the National Conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, scheduled for 28 - 30 October, will delve in depth on the Risks in Today’s Boardroom.  

Prof. Narayan’s presentation will be followed by a panel discussion with an eminent panel of speakers who will add more insights and local flavour to the session. The panelists will be Dr. Harsha Cabral - President’s Counsel, Commissioner, Law Commission of Sri Lanka; Ronnie Peiris - Group Finance Director, John Keells Holdings Plc; and Prashantha Lal de Alwis - Director, Sampath Bank.

Risk, the possibility of an adverse outcome and opportunity, the probability of a favourable outcome for the same event, are the inevitable opposites in every decision in any organisation. Over the last few years, risks in organisations have become omnipresent, omnipotent and growing in complexity. Recent anecdotal evidence from across the World seems to suggest that the ability of organisations to effectively manage risk has had a greater impact on corporate performance than superior strategy and execution.  

Prof. Narayan will focus on a global level during his speech covering issues such as how far have cross-border flows and multinational firms accentuated the problem of risk in organisations? Are exogenous factors (geopolitical, environmental, etc.) increasingly contributing to a company’s risk, even more than financial and operational risk? If so, how do we ‘ring-fence’ organisations from such risks?  Is risk embedded in the rapid economic growth witnessed by emerging economies? If so, what pro-active measures should emerging economies on a high growth trajectory take to avoid the pitfalls?

At the organisational level, a few questions for the Board will arise such as: Is risk management about compliance and transparency in financial reporting or about the disciplined process of challenge by the company’s Board on every major decision?  Is it about the pain of getting to the truth every time or the intuition to identify a completely unforeseen event (the ‘black swan’?) that could potentially take the company down precipitously? Can ethical conduct and high standards of integrity reduce the probability of adverse outcomes in organisations? Could more stringent regulations and strict audits be the answer? Would greater diversity in the composition of the Board, and improved knowledge and understanding of the industry and governance issues by the Board help better manage risks?    

At the organisational level, some questions for the CEOs and CFOs such as: Is risk management today focused more on form than substance? Should risk management be the responsibility of the Board and the Top Management or should it be part of every company’s ‘DNA’? How do we increase the ‘risk-IQ’ of the organisation? How do we transform risk reporting from being ex-post to ex-ante, from being reactive to being proactive, from being tail-lights to being head-lights?  

The focus during Narayan’s session will lie in raising and finding robust answers to these complex and confounding questions on risk management. Turning them into feasible action at the public policy level and at the organisational level will be the challenges that lie ahead.  

Prof. Narayan has a rich and varied experience in the area of banking and financial markets. Prior to joining IIMB, he was with a private sector bank in India with management responsibility for retail banking, operations and information technology. And prior to that, he was with a multinational bank for several years, based overseas and a global banking technology company also based overseas. Apart from teaching courses in corporate finance, international banking and financial markets at IIMB, Prof. Narayan has been conducted seminars/workshops and undertaken consulting engagements with several organisations in India and abroad. His list of present and past clients include UCO Bank, Union Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, Vijaya Bank, Clearing Corporation of India (CCIL), BBK (Bahrain), DBS Bank (Singapore), State Bank of India, ICASL (Sri Lanka), etc. as well as leading information technology companies in the banking and finance domain. Having travelled to over 40 countries, and worked or implemented projects in 20 different countries, he brings a unique cross-cultural perspective and a breadth of global experience. A much sought after speaker, he has delivered several keynote addresses at various conferences and seminars organised by several institutions both in India and abroad.