2 Chen Products produces four manufactured products: Products 1, 2, 3 and 4. The company’s risk committee recently
met to discuss how the company might respond to a number of problems that have arisen with Product 2. After a
number of incidents in which Product 2 had failed whilst being used by customers, Chen Products had been presented
with compensation claims from customers injured and inconvenienced by the product failure. It was decided that the
risk committee should meet to discuss the options.
When the discussion of Product 2 began, committee chairman Anne Ricardo reminded her colleagues that, apart from
the compensation claims, Product 2 was a highly profitable product.
Chen’s risk management committee comprised four non-executive directors who each had different backgrounds and
areas of expertise. None of them had direct experience of Chen’s industry or products. It was noted that it was
common for them to disagree among themselves as to how risks should be managed and that in some situations,
each member proposed a quite different strategy to manage a given risk. This was the case when they discussed
which risk management strategy to adopt with regard to Product 2.
Required:
(a) Describe the typical roles of a risk management committee. (6 marks)