Thus far, 2012 has been a revealing year for risk managers with regard to what the C-Suite expects of them and their ever-evolving (mostly expanding) roles. Here we offer a look back at NU's top stories in the first half of the year, addressing the major concerns and challenges of the industry's risk-owners.
10. How do risk managers bring the value of their programs to the attention of the C-suite? How do they keep risk-management issues top of mind among an organization's leadership team? And perhaps most important, what do CEOs want from risk managers—and what is the best way to provide these leaders with the risk-related insights they need?
NU checked in with six accomplished risk managers to hear their strategies for successful C-suite relationships.
9. Risk managers are not confident that the loss-of-earnings trigger for business-interruption coverage is clearly explained to them, and many feel that the products that are available do not adequately cover their risks, a new survey reveals.
8. Credit risk—a financial risk, rather than a physical risk—used to be handled by the credit department. But now, because of the magnitude of the threat, CEOs and CFOs are looking to their risk managers to assume this risk as well. Here are the types of questions risk managers should be asking of their company's customers and partners.
7. Corporate risk managers looking to protect their property—and by extension, their organizations' overall financial stability—should consider viewing their facility risks from an engineering perspective, according to catastrophe-risk expert Akshay Gupta, director of AIR Worldwide's Catastrophe Risk Engineering practice.
6. Increasingly, more CEOs and CFOs are taking charge of their companies' risk-management duties, according to a Deloitte & Touche and Forbes Insights survey–and the majority of those companies say they plan to implement changes designed to raise the profile of risk management throughout their organization.
5. Released during the 50th annual meeting of the Risk and Insurance Management Society meeting here, the ninth annual Excellence in Risk Management survey from insurance-broker Marsh and RIMS found that risk managers are not meeting the expectations of chief executives—indicating that risk managers and the C Suite see eye-to-eye on necessary risk-professional skill sets, but gaps remain between how the two view the risk manager's role.
4. Company directors do not realize the full threat of their cyber-liability exposure and they must be more aware of the legal hazards they face or risk litigation from investors and regulators, says Francis Kean, Willis Group Holdings executive director in the firm's FINEX Global Unit. “There is a whole universe of potential cyber risk not understood at a board level,” he says. “This, in turn, creates a risk that directors will fail to discharge their duty of care and duty to promote the success of the company.”
3. Cyber insurance policies are different from most other types of insurance as they are focused on mitigating down-the-road legal liabilities that may arise from a breach event. It's important to involve relevant managers from across the organization early in the decision-making process to make sure their departmental requirements are known and policy options are understood. We recommend that companies looking at cyber insurance consider the following steps.
2. Tremendous insured losses from natural catastrophes in 2011 took a toll on pricing across all insurance businesses, according to the newly released Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) Benchmark Survey measuring Total Cost of Risk (TCOR) and its impact on 10 industry groups.
1. Being bored at work is never an issue for Michael Liebowitz. As the head of the risk-management department at New York University, one of the country's largest private institutions of higher learning, Liebowitz faces an incredible array of risks every day—many of which never crop up in Corporate America.
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Shawn Moynihan
Shawn Moynihan is Editor-in-Chief of National Underwriter Property & Casualty. A St. John’s University alum, Moynihan has earned 11 Jesse H. Neal Awards, the Pulitzers of the business press; seven Azbee Awards, from the American Society of Business Press Editors; two Folio Awards; and a SABEW award, from the Society of American Business Editors & Writers. Prior to joining ALM, he served as Managing Editor/Online Editor of journalism institution Editor & Publisher, the trade bible of the newspaper industry. Moynihan also has held editorial positions with AOL, Metro New York, and Newhouse Newspapers. He can be reached at [email protected].
