Almost two decades ago while working as the corporate risk and claim manager for a large international corporation, I was waiting for a meeting with my boss, the corporate CFO. I picked up a magazine called Risk Management. But it was not the Risk Management Magazine with which I was familiar — the one published by the Risk & Insurance Management Society (RIMS). It was instead a magazine for financial executives dealing with issues such as derivatives, debentures, foreign exchange, bonds, investments, and similar financial factors. Long ago this column alluded to "the other side of claims" in reference to loss control. But this was the "other side of risk management," the management of speculative risk as opposed to the pure risks of loss with which his tiny department dealt. I supposed it was a part of enterprise risk management (ERM), the new jargon being tossed about in various insurance publications. ERM was taking hold, and corporations began by no longer having a "risk manager." Instead, they employed Chief Risk Officers (CRO), who sat on the throne of a large corporate internal empire to oversee everything from company investments to the selection of its insurance broker.
The risk management subject is rightfully the bailiwick of my co-columnist, Kevin Quinley, who has often spoken of this new process called ERM. It crops up often in our companion publication, National Underwriter, with sundry writers taking the insurance industry to task for not embracing ERM passionately. However, when the headlines in the April, 2009 issue of National Underwriter appeared, I began to wonder if my aversion to speculative financial risk might not have had some merit. Across the nation, corporations were terminating their risk managers. Sam Friedman, NU's editor, had written an article titled "Out-of-Work Risk Managers Must Face Up to the 'Reality of Necessity,'" and a companion article, "Risk Managers in Survival Mode."
Corporate belt tightening in the financial crisis of 2008-2009 was leading to the layoff of risk managers all over the nation. Friedman quoted Bill Perry, president of Logic Associates, a New York firm, who advises those caught in the baling machine of corporate straw to "consider going back to school for [their] MBA in finance or for a designation, like an ARM or CPCU. That will help [them] land a new job more quickly when the economy does recover." Sure, maybe they can get a student loan for the MBA?
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.