Does your company or organization need a chief risk officer? Some companies have taken the role of risk manager to another level. Think of the risk management job on steroids and you have a chief risk officer. (Think of an athlete on steroids and you have a major league baseball player.) CROs are executive level positions akin to chief financial officers or chief operating officers.

Why might organizations create CRO positions? They might add the CRO slot to their organizational charts for various reasons. Establishing a CRO position offers a better chance of thinking strategically about risk, not just insurance risk, but other challenges, as well. This includes currency risk with foreign exchange rate fluctuations, climate changes and their implications, brand identity, and preservation of intellectual property rights.

Historically, these niches have been off limits to most risk managers. Of course, in a perfect world, we would expect risk managers to address these issues for their respective organizations. In the real world, however, risk managers often are spread thin just sweating out their next property renewals, not addressing these challenges, which are somewhat 20,000 feet above desktop level.

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