Case Study: Avoiding ERM Entropy

Leave it to an engineer to crystallize one of the toughest challenges companies face after putting in place an enterprise risk management (ERM) approach.

“Any system that is set in motion requires some energy to keep going,” notes Trinidad and Tobago-based Phoenix Park Gas Processors Limited (PPGPL) President Eugene Tiah (a former engineer who also earned his MBA). “For this reason, we are committed to sustaining our effort and continually improving our ERM capabilities over time.”

Tiah and Dominic Rampersad, Phoenix Park vice president of finance and information technology (IT), spoke to me at length last month about their ERM journey. The results of these conversations and other research can be found in this case study.

I’ll include more information about Phoenix Park’s impressive effort in future posts.

The company – which employs approximately 180 people, posts annual revenue of about $700 million and is jointly owned by NGC NGL Company Limited, ConocoPhillips Inc., and a GE Energy Financial Services company (10 percent) – undertook a formal ERM effort in 2008 to achieve three objectives. (more…)