Ever expanding risk frontiers–comment

We decided to carry out this ambitious task because CRE’s core European readers increasingly find themselves dealing with risks across the world and not just across Europe. At the same time risk managers in North and South America, Africa and the Middle East and Asia are finding themselves locked into the global economy as their employers export their goods and services to the ‘old world’ and expand there in search of new markets. The recent catastrophic events in Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Thailand sparked a big debate within European and international risk management and insurance circles about how companies could and should deal with this fluid international risk landscape.hideThus the timing seemed perfect for CRE to expand its footprint beyond Europe and find out what the main risks are that European companies need to deal with as they extend their reach, how local risk management communities are reacting to the challenges raised by globalisation and how the risk transfer market is responding. As with our annual Risk Frontiers survey of leading European risk managers we will publish the findings of the GRF interviews in the pages of CRE on a regional basis as the project develops. Thus in this issue we kick off with Africa, which is based upon speeches and follow up meetings with leading risk managers at the IRMSA conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the end of last year, a roundtable with a group of risk managers held in Cape Town in January, individual interviews with thought leaders such as Gert Cruywagen of Tsogo Sun and meetings held at the excellent IQPC Enterprise Risk Management event in Johannesburg at the end of January. As with Risk Frontiers Europe we have chosen a list of simple but challenging questions to pose to those we interview individually and that take part in roundtables. We are also taking choice comments and opinion from the key speeches at the events which cover the same questions to help provide a synthesis of latest thinking from the local risk management community. The next issue will include the European and Middle Eastern legs of the project. This will be followed in May and June by Asia, which will be largely based on a trip to Singapore where I will host the inaugural meeting of a new association of Asian risk managers, South America and North America, which will be based on meetings at the RIMS conference in Los Angeles. The initial findings of the survey will be presented at the RIMS conference and then discussed in depth at a major event, the Global Risk Frontiers Debate, that we are organising in London on May 22nd. The Global Risk Frontiers Debate will be a unique gathering of risk managers from across the world who will have a rare opportunity to discuss and debate the key topics of the day that affect the profession and hopefully also make some real progress on key practical matters such as risk education and lobbying more effectively on an international level. The survey itself will provide a rallying point for the international risk and insurance management profession. It will distil the thoughts and desires of leading individuals and hopefully therefore give the wider business and political community and of course key service providers such as insurers, brokers and specialist advisers some serious food for thought as they attempt to meet the increasingly complex and global needs of their customers. As noted above this is an ambitious project and one that has never been attempted before. We at CRE have invested in our reporting team to ensure that we have the resource to carry out this project in the professional manner that it deserves while at the same time maintaining the service that we carry out for our core European and increasingly international family of risk manager readers. The willing cooperation of you—the risk managers on the ground—in this project is essential to ensure that it delivers a worthwhile result for the profession as a whole and helps provide a firm rallying point for future action to the benefit of all. I would like to therefore take this opportunity to thank the many risk managers that have already taken part in the project for their time and look forward to working with many more of you over the coming months in this and the Risk Frontiers Europe project too. And I look forward to seeing you all at the Global Risk Frontiers Debate on May 22nd. Registration is now open at www.commercialriskeurope.com/global-risk-frontiers-2013 and attendance is free for risk managers. Please make a space in your diary and come along for what promises to be an interesting, challenging and highly valuable day for all.

Ever expanding risk frontiers–comment

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