Traditional approaches to risk management emphasize mitigation, focusing on the readily apparent risks facing a company in the areas of security, privacy, credit, regulatory, technology, fraud and more. These threats are, of course, important and must be addressed.

But enlightened risk managers (and we are talking about the entire C-suite here, not just the chief risk officer) don't worry just about the bad things that could happen, such as the theft of sensitive customer data. They also consider the good things that might occur, like introducing a hit product to the marketplace. While it's important to evaluate potential crises, it's equally critical to consider risks that are linked to success so you can capitalize on opportunities.