Risk Practice McKINSEY WORKING PAPERS ON RISK The Risk Revolution Number 1 Kevin Buehler, September 2008 Andrew Freeman and Ron Hulme Confidential Working Paper. No part may be circulated, quoted, or reproduced for distribution without prior written approval from McKinsey & Company. The Risk Revolution Contents Introduction 2 Acknowledgements 3 The emergence of modern risk management 4 Table 1: Important theories and their applications 5 Risk in the financial sector 8 Goldman Sachs and the culture of risk 14 Risk for nonfinancial companies 16 Case study: TXU Corporation 19 A practical corporate risk-management process 22 Table 2: Examples of risk across industries 31 Selected sources 35 McKinsey Working Papers on Risk is a new series presenting McKinsey's best current thinking on risk and risk management. The papers represent a broad range of views, both sector-specific and cross-cutting, and are intended to encourage discussion internally and externally. Working papers may be republished through other internal or external channels. Please address correspondence to the managing editor, Andrew Freeman,
[email protected] 2 Introduction In the past 18 months, we have witnessed a major credit and liquidity crisis in the banking system as losses from subprime mortgages, structured investment vehicles, and “covenant- lite” leveraged loans generated significant knock-on effects worldwide. Major financial institutions have taken more than $500 billion in write-offs, and central banks around the globe have initiated emergency measures to restore liquidity. CEOs have been replaced at such venerable institutions as Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and UBS. Bear Stearns, a firm once viewed as having a conservative approach to risk management, has been the target of a rescue by JPMorgan that was driven and to some extent sponsored by the Federal Reserve.