The effectiveness of GRC depends on who is responsible for it. Are the people running your GRC efforts more like Countrywide's former CFO Eric Sieracki, who painted a rosy picture of the company even in the middle of the subprime crisis, or the company's former chief risk officer John McMurray, who warned execs of problems.
GRC Personality Test [1] | Source: The Big Fat Finance Blog [2].
Links:
[1] http://bigfatfinanceblog.com/2009/06/10/grc-personality-test/
[2] http://bigfatfinanceblog.com