The NC State ERM Summit Just Proved the COSO Survey Right

Last week, more than 110 enterprise risk management practitioners gathered at NC State's Poole College for the 2026 ERM Roundtable Summit. The case studies they shared were compelling. The programs they described were mature, relationship-driven, and genuinely effective at connecting risk functions across large, complex organizations. They also illustrated, with striking precision, exactly why the COSO/Crowe survey published earlier this year found that only 7 percent of ERM programs are seen as strategic partners by the business.

That is not a criticism of the practitioners. It is a diagnosis of where most ERM programs sit on the maturity curve, and what the next investment must accomplish to move beyond it.