Enterprise risk management continues to grow up.

As the discipline of ERM continues to develop, the practice of strategic risk management is emerging as an important component of an enterprisewide approach to risk.

Growing interest in strategic risk management is being driven by maturation of ERM programs and a desire on the part of corporate boards and others to make better use of risk information in the strategic decision-making process, ERM experts say. The concept, they note, got a boost from the turmoil that rocked the economy beginning in 2008, which spurred some companies to embrace board-level approaches to risk.

“Mature ERM and strategic risk management are really the same thing,” said Laurie Champion, managing director-enterprise risk management at Aon Global Risk Consulting in Atlanta. She said strategic risk management essentially is the incorporation of risk awareness and risk information into the corporate strategy process.

Corporate boards are “very much looking for the opportunity to leverage the information that comes out of ERM to help make the strategic process more robust.”

The C-suite has the same perspective—they want value out of risk management and ERM, said Ms. Champion. In addition, “ERM leaders within the business are seeing the opportunity to link with other corporate disciplines, and they're seeing that this makes a lot of sense as well.”

“Organizations are missing value if they fail to link ERM and strategy,” she said. “A lot of work is being done in this area.”

While high-level risk assessments often have been done from a compliance perspective, “Now, I think companies are looking for more value out of this ERM effort. They're applying it to ask risk questions a different way,” said Corey Gooch, senior enterprise risk management consultant at Towers Watson & Co. in Chicago.

“Instead of saying, "What are the risks to the business?' They say, "Here are my strategic objectives. What are the risks that could impact our company's ability to reach those strategic objectives?'” said Mr. Gooch.

Carol Fox, director of the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.'s strategic and enterprise risk practice, said that “from RIMS' perspective, strategic risk management is an evolution of enterprise risk management that focuses more on the upside of risk.”

Organizations, she said, “limit the value they can create through enterprise risk management if their approach to risk is primarily one of mitigation through controls and compliance.”

One organization that recently began exploring strategic risk management is U.S. Foodservice Inc.

“I think it's really the most holistic way to run your business,” said Carol Arendall, vp-risk management for the Rosemont, Ill.-based company. “It's touching all parts of the organization.”

Ms. Arendall said part of the reason U.S. Foodservice is embarking on a strategic risk management process is that the company is going through “significant changes” and that “now is the time to embed that mentality in the organization.” She stressed though, that U.S. Foodservice is “really just starting” on the process.

Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. also uses the approach.

“PSEG has a strong risk management program that incorporates the assessment and measurement of tactical and strategic opportunities and risks,” Enrique Mejorada, vp-risk management and chief risk officer of Newark, N.J.-based energy services said in an email.

Christopher Mandel, president and principal consultant at Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas-based Excellence in Risk Management L.L.C. and former head of ERM at San Antonio-based USAA, said: “I don't think that it needs to be carved out as new discipline. If you're managing risks strategically, you're addressing risks to the corporate strategy, which includes capturing the upside of risk.”

To illustrate the concept of “upside of risk,” Ms. Fox cited the example of a pharmaceutical company that needs an abundance of clean water to manufacturer its products.

A lack of water would have a great impact on the company's ability to achieve its objectives, she said. But if the company were to invest in desalination capability or technology, that would not only protect the company against a major risk, it would also enable it to produce clean water for others at a profit, thus creating more value for the enterprise, she said.

“The strategic risk management discipline would drive that different consideration and address the uncertainties of this alternate strategy,” said Ms. Fox.

She added that New York-based RIMS recently formed a Strategic Risk Management Development Council to foster advancement in risk management through research, design and implementation of international leading strategic risk practices and research.

“Regulators, customers, investors and other key stakeholders are pressuring organizations to identify and explain how they manage the risks they face,” she said. “As more demands are made, the need for more innovative risk practices will expand. Strategic risk practices associated with risk appetite, risk-bearing capacity, emerging risks and integration will advance. “