Poor mutual fund choice, inappropriate asset allocation, the wrong risk level, inefficient tax management, and an unwillingness to let time do its magic will result in a less than desirable outcome.

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Companies must achieve a level of transparency and risk management that protects against real security threats that exist inside their organization.

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Then a formal, thought-out system of supervision and risk management is created and applied at every level to ensure execution of the strategy and protection against internal and external threats.

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Even though the company experienced several low-level nuclear accidents in recent years TEPCO has never appointed a board-level committee to oversee enterprise risk management, and because of the limited presence of independent directors on its board, suffered from a lack of alternate perspectives in its board room.

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These internal committees, made up of several high-level executives, mostly from risk-management divisions, have pledged not to reveal a whistle-blower's identity or to punish him for speaking up.

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Even then, professional, regulatory and internal quality and risk management policies generally require second partner reviews and other supervision of even the work of partner level licensed professionals.

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Investigators said the shortcomings pointed to serious and wide-ranging management failure leaving the council exposed to a higher level of financial, legal and reputational risk.

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The citation by the BCBS is the first time that spreadsheet management has ever been specifically referenced at such a high level, a watermark in the approach to spreadsheet risk.

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