Balancing technical & soft skills–Portugal

“The risk manager, like any other manager, must have leadership capabilities and the ability to form a comprehensive view of a company’s business,” said Mariana Lopes, Director of Financial Management and Risks at drinks company Unicer. “The leadership capability is especially important in the sense that it will enable risk managers to obtain involvement and active participation of the whole organisation in the risk management process, which is fundamental,” she added. Demetrio Tahoces, Director of Insurable Risks at power and electricity group EDP, agreed. “Leadership is an important skill for risk managers, especially if it is complemented by technical knowledge that enables him or her to make accurate evaluations of the risks faced by the company.” Being able to communicate ideas with clarity and openness to input from other parts of the firm are key skills for any risk manager, said the participants.hide“It is essential to be able to communicate efficiently within the company,” said Pedro Cupertino de Miranda, Risk Manager at retailer Sonae. “That is true for risk managers or any other function. Increasingly, employees must be able to communicate at all levels, but risk managers have to make an additional effort.” He continued: “Business knowledge is vital, especially in areas like retail where risk managers need to have a thorough understanding of retail and supply chain risks. Depending on the organisation it is useful to have a background related to its particular field of activity. A risk manager must also have a broad view of the risks that can have an impact on the organisation.” “A good background for risk managers is enterprise business management. It encompasses several domains, including marketing, communication, human resources, finance, accounting and information technology,” he added. Soft skills must be complemented by technical knowledge, Mr Tahoces explained. But specific risk education is hard to come by in Portugal, he and other participants said. “Technical formation in areas such as engineering, architecture or economics can contribute knowledge that will be useful for a risk manager in his daily job,” Mr Tahoces argued. “But it would also be important to have a technical formation focused on risk management, which is something that we still cannot find in Portugal or Spain.” The roundtable participants suggested that risk management should be included in the curricula of graduation courses currently taught by universities. “The introduction of risk management as a discipline in graduate courses such as law or management could be of help to give the profession a further lift,” Ms Lopes said. “It could also help students to have a first contact with risk management issues. Then, when they get out of university, they can implement such concepts at companies.” “In Portugal there are no graduation courses for future risk managers, although there are some options at the post-graduate level,” Ms Lopes pointed out. “But I believe that most of the knowledge that a risk manager must display comes from on-the-job experience. A risk manager must work in other parts of the company in order to know it better and be able to work with other departments in a more decisive way.” Companies looking to implement risk management and spread its principles among staff have turned to standards such as ISO 31000. According to António Cândido, Chief Risk Officer at electromechanics and electric infrastructure firm Efacec, such standards must be complemented by further risk management activity. “Our risk management process is in line with ISO 31000 concepts, but this is something that remains too formal, a little too concentrated at the top,” he said. “In our daily work we need to go further down.” According to Mr Miranda, the effectiveness of international standards, such as ISO 31000, depend on their application and adaptation by organisations. But they do provide a common language and amalgamate best practice, he added. “All standards derive from a common source of knowledge. If we compare the different standards that we can find in the market, we will see that there are many similarities among them. A company can use ISO, COSO or even devise its own standards, the important thing is that it will follow the basic principles. Standards organise ideas and help to ensure that a common language is spoken throughout the company. The main advantage of a standard is that it is the outcome of many hours of reflection on a particular subject,” he said.

Balancing technical & soft skills–Portugal

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