Reflect for a moment on this analogy: Effective risk management is to a company what brakes are to a race car. Each provides the ability to operate faster and with more agility and confidence—and that’s exactly how some of the world’s leading companies are driving their risk management operations today.

Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal,...