KPMG is pleased to support Miami University's William Isaac & Michael Oxley Center for Business Leadership's new plug and play curriculum that can be inserted into a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate business courses across disciplines.

The purpose of the KPMG and William Isaac & Michael Oxley Center for Business Leadership Curriculum Development Initiative (CDI) is to foster the creation and international dissemination of innovative and integrative curriculum that links integrity, leadership, and transparency to a wide variety of topical areas. The goal is to apply cutting-edge, interdisciplinary thinking to big business problems. This curriculum helps create generations of business leaders focused on long-term organizational value. The topics, which feature areas related to sustainable practices, corporate governance, executive leadership, risk management, performance measurement, and business reporting are a natural fit for KPMG, which consults in these practices, and Miami University, which is known as an incubator for innovative curriculum and leadership development.

These modules can be used in many course contexts across majors with a minimal time investment for adaptation. The modules include course notes, slide decks, case studies, suggested readings, suggested speakers, and activities for four class sessions. They are flexible and adaptable to fit smoothly into an existing course curriculum. By cutting across academic silos, these modules allow faculty and students to gain broader perspectives and develop leading methodologies in a wide variety of classroom settings.
The modules were developed by KPMG-funded grants by Miami University faculty and pilot tested using undergraduate and graduate students. The grants were approved by the CDI Advisory Board that includes KPMG partner-in-charge of Enterprise Risk Management, John Michael Farrell; KPMG director of Campus Recruiting, Blane Ruschak; and Miami University William Isaac & Michael Oxley Center for Business Leadership co-directors, Brian Ballou and Dan Heitger.

Topical areas include:
• Strategy
• Governance
• Risk management
• Sustainability
• Regulations
• Health care economics
• Cultural transparency
• IT integrity

Sustainability Issues and Opportunities with Information Systems
Students will learn about CSR and sustainability and explore the negative and positive influences of IT and IS on sustainability.
Transparently Communicating Enterprise Risk Management Effectiveness to Create Long-Term Value
Students will learn about sustainability reporting, benefits of effectively communicating critical ERM, and the significant practical challenges in reporting this type of information.
Identifying and Managing Stakeholder Relationships to Guide Strategic and Operational Decision Making
This module provides students with an understanding of three important aspects of effective stakeholder management necessary to create long-term value.
Using Performance Measurement Techniques to Improve Enterprise Risk Management Effectiveness
This module provides students with an understanding of how organizations can more effectively assess inherent and residual risks by applying a number of performance measurement techniques, such as activity-based costing, performance modeling, strategy maps, and balanced scorecards, that are used in some managerial accounting areas.
Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Challenges in Regulated Industries--Financial Institutions
This module explores Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) for financial institutions and the Federal Reserve's approach for evaluating banks using ERM ratings.
Understanding ERM and Assessing Inherent Risk
Enterprise risk management (ERM) involves identifying and ultimately managing risks and seeking opportunities associated with the strategies of an organization.
Board of Directors’ Role in Corporate Governance
Boards of directors' responsibilities are evolving as they face new pressures and challenges. This module illustrates how boards strive to better understand the expectations of the different shareholder types that they represent and other stakeholder concerns. The importance of board diversity also is emphasized in this module.
Executive Leadership and Control
Commitment to sustainable long-term value starts from the top of an enterprise. This module explores how executive leadership is critical for developing values that represent what an organization represents and the boundaries that clearly demonstrate behaviors and resource usage that are not appropriate. Developing a risk philosophy and appetite is an important part of this process.
Crisis Management in Organizations
Compared to the majority of risks an enterprise will face, crises are relatively unpredictable and improbable, but they are possibly fatal to the organization if not managed correctly. This module explores the importance of developing one or a few cohesive plan(s), uniform enough to be universally understood yet flexible enough to be able to adapt.
Evaluating and Implementing Risk Response Alternatives
By taking a portfolio approach to risk management, enterprises can optimize, rather than minimize, inherent risks. However, if the inherent risks collectively fail to align with the enterprise's risk appetite, risk responses need to be implemented. This module explores how businesses use tools, including business process management (BPM), to effectively manage risks from a portfolio perspective.