How to achieve success as a risk manager in 2021
A Swiss Re executive offers tips and insights for young professionals who aspire to a lasting risk management career.
PC360: How do you characterize the mission and the value of risk management?
Kwan: The mission of risk management is twofold: to balance the resources of the company against operating risks and to find strong partners to transfer risk to. Risk managers must wear many hats and maintain a focus on issues including equipment/machinery oversight, employee well-being, macro/microeconomic impacts, natural catastrophes, and supply chain. The value of risk management is in understanding topics and finding the right experts to navigate the best interests of the organization that it supports.
PC360: What type of people excel in risk management?
Kwan: Individuals that excel in risk management ultimately impact the short-term goals of their enterprise while maintaining focus on long-term goals. A smart risk manager once told me that the worst thing a risk manager could do is to try to show their value by telling management that they saved money on a renewal. Instead, successful risk managers show value by navigating market cycles and risk finance to implement a strategy that meets the goals of their stakeholders.
PC360: How has the risk management profession evolved over time?
Kwan: In the past, risk management was the team that handled buying insurance for a company. Today, risk management works to integrate across the entire enterprise, to fully understand and manage the pain points of the various risks that the company is exposed to. Put another way, risk management is the “catch all” department when legal or finance aren’t sure what to do with risk.
With the global pandemic, everything took an evolutionary step, and risk managers showed their value by leading the front-line efforts in getting all businesses back to “normal.”
Data has also changed the job description of a risk manager. Increased access to better data allows risk managers to identify something as simple as repetitive motions sending groups of employees to medical care or the effects on corporate assets with climate change.
PC360: What are ideal skills for young professionals who aspire to a lasting risk-management career?
Kwan: First, get to know people! Risk managers can’t know everything happening at any given time, nor can they be experts in all the functions they oversee, so strong networks ensure that you have the right contacts when problems arise.
Next, understand the larger world we live in. Globalization, the internet and commercial shipping have all made the world much smaller. Having an understanding of how a fuel shortage in South America will delay cocoa shipments, which ultimately will raise the price of Halloween candy, is an important skill for risk managers to understand.
And finally, grow your knowledge. We’re all sifting through hundreds of emails a day. Take the time to read risk engineering reports and industry periodicals and ask a lot of questions. The more you get familiar with how outsiders view your company, the more you’ll get to know your company.
PC360: What other advice do you have for aspiring or new risk managers?
Kwan: Attend a local RIMS chapter meeting and get involved. I’ve learned so much by attending meetings and getting to know the risk managers in various regions. Other risk managers are willing to share their knowledge, help you understand what they work on, and give you advice. I’ve been extremely fortunate to create a network of insurance friends that will give me insight on trends, perspective on how things were handled from a historical sense, and access to individuals that continue to help grow my knowledge.
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