Airmic members crave more strategic role: survey

Airmic’s latest member survey has found a profession that craves greater opportunity to influence strategic decision-making within organisations, with more than half believing that developing communication skills is key to achieving this goal. Speaking about the survey’s findings, Airmic said risk managers are gaining more boardroom influence to shape strategy, but said many in the profession need to upskill to take this opportunity. Airmic’s survey found that 75% of members polled want greater opportunities to influence strategic decision-making within their organisation. It is their number one desire. It also finds that the ability to communicate and influence are the top skills respondents believe are needed to transition into a strategic business asset (58%). This is followed by cross-functional business experience/understanding on 50%, and commercial/financial acumen on 43%. In its report on the survey's findings, Airmic says risk professionals should expect and demand to be a core part of their organisation’s strategic planning, by communicating a clear risk-reward perspective that can be understood by senior leadership, departments and business units. “To reach this goal, however, risk and insurance professionals cannot stand still. They must upskill, develop their networks internally and externally, and embrace the new world,” it adds. Understanding risks is one thing, but being able to convey that understanding to others is another, according to the report. Airmic’s technical director and deputy CEO, Julia Graham, told media that the survey shows the association’s members are “up for the challenge” of becoming a strategic business partner and want to learn in order to rise to that challenge. But she said when people move from the back-office to centre stage they must have a “good story when they go to the board”. “Our members are telling us that we collaborate really quite well with some parts of the business, but we don’t collaborate quite as well as we would like with certain parts. The strategic function, and whoever leads that, is one of those areas. To be able to do that, we need enhanced communication and collaboration skills. We think collaboration is going to be absolutely key in the future. If you want to take that centre-stage position, you can only do so if people are there with you. You can’t do that on your own and be lonely in the spotlight in splendid isolation,” she said. John Ludlow, Airmic CEO, stressed that strategic, leadership risk roles are more about coordinating rather than managing the risk yourself. “This requires a whole different set of skills than when manging operational risk and compliance,” he said. Airmic’s outgoing chair, Lynda Lucas, said getting the attention of boards is dependent on the “quality” of information they receive. “You cannot take lots of data because they haven’t got the time to look at it. I think some specialists think the more detailed the data the better it will be and the stronger the message. But that is not the way to do it,” she said. Ms Graham agreed: “Boards are spending between 4% and 7% of their time on risk. It is a much more complicated world. It is a much faster-changing world. Risk is therefore much more complex and you have got to get your message across in the same amount of time. You cannot dither around. You have to get to the point and communicate in a very clear and meaningful way.” Ms Lucas advised risk and insurance managers to collaborate with company secretaries in order to get issues raised, and time, with the board. “Company secretaries are at the centre of the organisation… and very often are your best route through,” she said. Ms Graham said things are improving for risks managers, who are enjoying greater influence over strategy within the boardroom. But Airmic’s incoming chair, Tim Murray, said risk managers’ desire for greater strategic influence and time with the board also requires a cultural change from the top in some organisations. “The desire of risk managers cannot be met when the c-suite doesn’t value risk management. It is catch-22… it also requires a cultural change at the top. So there needs to be some push and pull. That is key to opening the door,” he said.

Airmic members crave more strategic role: survey

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