Ferma says crises demand shift to ‘fully fledged’ risk leaders

Ferma’s incoming president told Commercial Risk Europe that the increasingly volatile risk landscape demands risk managers finally become fully-fledged risk leaders within their organisation to influence and support strategic decision making. Charlotte Hedemark, who officially takes over as president of Ferma from Dirk Wegener at the federation’s seminar in Antwerp this week, said risk management has become more prominent within organisations over recent years as a series of crises hit, with Covid-19 in particular seeing risk managers gain greater access to the c-suite and broader board recognition. She added that the risk manager role is no longer simply viewed as a compliance function or linked exclusively to insurance renewal negotiations. But of course, with greater power comes greater responsibility. “Increased recognition has brought with it increased expectation,” said Hedemark, who is also risk management expert at SAP, which creates software to help companies better manage complex business processes. “This more prominent and expanded role requires that the function’s remit extends beyond risk mitigation – risk managers must become risk leaders. In fact, given the scale and the scope of the threats that companies currently face, which will only increase moving forward, the environment demands it,” she said, as Ferma members gathered in Belgium. “The onus is therefore on the risk management community to demonstrate their leadership potential and amplify the value that risk management can bring to the organisation as a means of influencing and supporting strategic decision making,” Hedemark added. “We now have a clear opportunity to demonstrate our ability to be risk leaders. We must become resilience champions within our organisations, anticipating and addressing emerging risks before they have the potential to disrupt,” continued Ferma’s new president. She stressed that the risk manager role has shifted from identifying and reporting risks in excel risk registers, and is now increasingly integrated directly into the strategic decision-making process. She added that risk managers must be on top of the full spectrum of risk within and outside of their company. Adding: “To do that, they must be proactively engaging with key internal stakeholders, as well as interacting with people externally”. Hedemark believes risk functions must build resilience by stress testing their risk models, and feels there is a clear onus on companies to invest in training and development, to ensure they have robust crisis management plans in place and modernise risk management practices. She said that under her presidency, Ferma shall continue to “amplify” the role of risk management, leveraging and expanding the expertise of risk managers, while helping to drive a culture of risk awareness and proactive risk management. And the federation will also remain focused on lobbying the European institutions and providing a platform to bring risk experts together in order to help further develop the value of risk managers. “It is imperative that Ferma continues to strengthen its standing as a strong counterpart to European institutions, enabling the risk management community to shape policies in vital domains such as climate, digitalisation and financial services. We must also elevate the platform for collaboration that Ferma provides, bringing together multiple different stakeholders, all committed to promoting the leadership credentials of the risk management community,” said Hedemark.

Ferma says crises demand shift to ‘fully fledged’ risk leaders

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