The Risk Ignored – Part 1, Chapter 3: The Acronym That Built a Market – And the One That Rescued It

As many industry shifts do, it began in a quiet room with a big idea. One conversation was with a Big Four consulting firm eager to formalize its newest offering. Another was with a risk software vendor in search of identity and traction. Sitting across the table from both in 2002 was Michael Rasmussen, then an analyst at Giga Information Group.

What he encountered in those two briefings wasn't just a common theme but a shared phrase. The software vendor and PwC had already begun using "Governance, Risk, and Compliance" to describe their offerings. Rasmussen helped bring it to life—not as a framework, not as an architecture, but as a market category. And almost overnight, that name became an industry.