Risk managers urged to grasp opportunity for broader role

In a session about the changing role of the profession, industry leaders discussed the need for risk managers to become more involved in strategic decisions taken by their firms, especially as they face an opportunity to boost their profiles currently. The alternative is to see some of these opportunities grabbed by other professionals from the legal and finance departments of their firms. “I sometimes feel that the insurable risk managers are a little like rabbits in headlights at the moment,” said Paul Taylor, the chairman of Airmic and director of Risk Assurance at Morgan Crucible.hide“We are standing there saying that there are all these people doing things like internal audit, procurement etc, and where are we going? Well, make a decision, guys, stand up for yourself, do something about it,” Mr Taylor challenged Ferma delegates. For Mr Taylor, the current moment offers a huge opportunity for the risk management profession to ‘define itself’. “Insurable risk management is a key part of that profession, as much as specialised areas like treasury risk management and strategic risk management,” he said. “If you think about the financial people in business, they are taking all sorts of different jobs in the organisation. That is what we should be thinking about in terms of risk management,” added Mr Taylor. To achieve such goals, risk managers must develop skills that go beyond understanding the complexities of the insurance market. “All risk managers are being asked to have better communication skills, interpersonal skills,” said Marie-Gemma Dequae, a member of Belrim and former president of Ferma. “You have a lot in your hands as a risk manager to build something that is really an internal function and cannot be outsourced,” she said. “You have to be a communicator and facilitator,” said Arnaut Van Der Veer, the Chief Risk Officer of the Reed Elsevier Group. “These are often qualified as ‘soft skills,’ but in reality they are pretty hard ones to do well,” he said. The upside is that, if risk managers are able to develop such skills, they face positive opportunities, argued the panellists. “There has never been a better time to be in risk management,” argued Chris Lajtha, the manager director of consultancy Adageo. He also stressed that, to take advantage of the favourable current circumstances, prominent roles need to be built on by risk managers through the accumulation of ‘small victories’ over the years. A much discussed issue during the session was whether risk managers should be more involved in strategic decisions made by their companies. Panellists said that this is a necessary development, but also added that there are limits to that ambition. Mr Lajtha warned that they should not expect to become active participants in the process of defining business strategies at their organisations. “You will never be invited to that table,” he said bluntly. “Risk managers have a huge role to play in the execution of strategies. But to be the architects of strategies is a step too far,” he said. Participants, however, including members of the audience, argued that to be involved in business strategies does not necessarily imply that they draft the strategies, but can take the form of the provision of information for board members to make informed decisions. Different opinions were also voiced on the position of risk managers in relation to executive boards. Mr Taylor argued that the role of the CRO is still not well understood. In his view, they do not need to be members of boards, but do need to have direct access to them.

Risk managers urged to grasp opportunity for broader role

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