Risk figurehead - essential or an admission of failure?

At a recent dinner debate I hosted on ERM trends, the topic which generated most passion was definitely whether an organization needs a risk figurehead like a CRO. Attendees came from industries including mining, retail and transport and there were definitely two schools of thought.

One view was that a figurehead was needed to spearhead the initiative to drive the process and cultural changes required - and to present the corporate risk profile information to the board.

The other school of thought was that the need was for an enabler - not a highly visible focal point. Their role would be to embed risk management deep within the organization so that the collection and reporting of risk data was 'part of the job' for all levels of managers - ie it was everyone's responsibility. Indeed the appointment of a CRO could even be seen as an admission of failure that risk wasn't taken seriously by the whole business.

This debate could run and run as it didn't seem tied to organizational risk maturity or industry characteristics.