Mitigated the risks of rapid growth for Archway
Board and senior management were concerned about their capacity to identify, manage, and respond to strategic and operational risks.
“We’ve grown too big, too fast, for our existing risk management strategy.”
-Board chair
Archway Community Services (Archway) had rapidly grown to support their clients with 90+ programs and 28 service locations throughout Abbotsford, the Fraser Valley, Lower Mainland, and India. However, Archway’s growth had occurred at a rate and breadth that greatly outpaced their existing risk management policies. Realize was asked to help Archway identify, manage, and respond to existing and upcoming strategic and operational risks.
Date
March 16, 2024Solutions
The client
Archway
The challenge
Rapid growth to meet client needs left Archway with little time and resources to manage strategic or operational risks
Archway had grown far beyond the scope of their existing risk management policies. Combined with internal cultural factors, this rapid growth led Archway’s Board and senior leadership to have significant concerns about their organization’s ability to navigate and manage risk at all levels.
The solution
Comprehensive multi-dimensional risk audit and actionable roadmap to organizational resilience
Realize recognized that there were two key components to Archway’s challenge: 1) identifying and responding to strategic and operational risks; and 2) creating a unified level of risk awareness and appetite across all organizational levels.
Our approach and methodology
Realize conducted a comprehensive and multi-dimensional risk audit to accurately assess Archway’s current risk exposure and risk management policies at a macro- and micro-level. Strategic, governance, financial, operational, reputational, and asset-based forms of risk were considered and assessed.
Identified areas of risk were subjected to further investigation to determine potential causes and ranked by probable risk severity level. To improve risk awareness and tolerance across all levels, recommendations were provided on embedding risk management within Archway’s strategy, culture, and operational processes.
To activate the recommended corrective actions and help shift Archway from reactive risk management to proactive strategic risk management, Realize provided risk tolerance training to the Board. Training included how to establish a strong culture that placed risk management at the heart of Archway’s approach to creating and preserving value for clients and stakeholders.
A model framework was also designed to enable risk-based strategic decision-making throughout the organization.
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About Archway
Archway Community Services is comprised of over 400 staff members and 1000 volunteers with 28 service locations in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Mission, Langley, and Chandigarh, India. Their 90+ programs span a wide variety service areas including education, health care, children and youth, seniors, employment, food security, addiction, housing, legal aid, and more.
About us
Realize Solutions is an award-winning B Corp-certified team that designs practical solutions for organizations with complex problems in the areas of board governance, organizational development, and people.
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