Reinforcing the Value of ERM

It is both an honor and a responsibility to write to you for the first time as President of the Association for Federal Enterprise Risk Management (AFERM). I am grateful for your trust, your engagement, and your continued commitment to advancing Enterprise Risk Management across government. At a time of rapid change and persistent uncertainty, one message is clear: Enterprise Risk Management is important—and it has never been more important than it is today.

Looking ahead, I’m focused on advancing AFERM’s 2026 vision: strengthening ERM across federal, state, and local government through expanded engagement, stronger community support, increased advocacy, richer content, improved communication, and meaningful partnerships.

In this article, the author explains why ERM has become indispensable in today’s federal environment. With shifting Administration priorities, large‑scale workforce losses, weakened oversight functions, and new personnel rules that may discourage employees from reporting emerging risks, agencies face unprecedented uncertainty. As Mr. Stanton notes, ERM provides a “systematic process for identifying, assessing, and managing risks” and increasingly serves as a critical early‑warning system when traditional safeguards are diminished.

The article highlights how ERM preserves institutional memory, clarifies rapidly changing objectives, strengthens resilience, and offers leaders a defensible decision‑making framework. In a paradox he describes, the very forces that make ERM harder to implement are the same forces that make it essential for protecting missions, leaders, and public trust.

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Federal agencies can strengthen mission delivery by integrating Enterprise Risk Management directly into their performance management systems. The article highlights how aligning an agency’s risk profile with its GPRA‑aligned strategic plan, embedding risk appetite into decision‑making, and using both KPIs and KRIs in performance reviews creates a more strategic, risk‑informed culture. It emphasizes the value of top‑down leadership and bottom‑up employee engagement in identifying risks that affect performance outcomes. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management is featured as a model, using an annual enterprise risk profile and its Risk Management Council to connect ERM with budgeting, internal controls, and daily operations. This approach shifts ERM from a compliance exercise to a performance driver that improves resource allocation, accountability, and mission success.

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This article describes the stunning operational collapse experience by Indigo, India's largest airline in December 2025, triggering nationwide chaos and exposing deep weaknesses in organizational preparedness. The fallout of this disruption led to massive disruptions in air travel throughout the country, regulatory scrutiny, financial losses, and a sharp blow to the airline's brand. The article analyzes that this was not an isolated failure but a symptom of systemic issues—overemphasis on cost‑cutting, insufficient redundancy, and weak risk governance. The crisis also raised questions about the role government and its policies that encouraged the monopoly of one airline to dominate the country's aviation market.

Ultimately, the article calls for deeper lessons: “Efficiency is good but not to the point where it makes the organization fragile. ”Strong ERM, contingency planning, ethical leadership, and investment in people are essential—not optional—for organizations operating at scale.

Click here to access the article.

RiskChats is AFERM’s podcast that focuses on Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) in the Federal space. Candid insights and perspectives from some of the U.S. Government’s most recognized Chief Risk Officers and Risk Management professionals.

Episodes will come out bi-weekly and be posted to the website.

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