Risk Management; New York

The Risk Manager's Survival Guide

The most important individuals in a tribe are those who provide for and protect the group: the hunters and warriors. In a corporation, they are the leaders of business units that generate revenue and acquire additional resources. As the risk manager, it is important to your survival that these individuals know you exist and recognize your value. If proper visibility and credibility are established, business leaders will seek your advice on how to manage the risks of proposed business initiati...

Managing Risk From Within: Monitoring Employees the Right Way

If a company takes security measures a step further red flags may be raised about privacy concerns. Yet many employees have well-founded reasons to engage in employee monitoring. Competent risk management involves protecting against losses from within. Companies increasingly are held to high standards when it comes to protecting others from their employees' actions. An effective employee-monitoring program begins with the identification of the risks to be managed. Defining corporate objective...

Zen and 5 Steps to Erm

Human beings are immersed in risk and risk decisions in the same way that a fish is immersed in water. The human brain is so hardwired for risk management decision-making that people often do not even notice that they are doing it -- especially when it is their career. This explains why so much effort has been dedicated to looking for solutions to ERM. In spite of the difficulties many have reported in implementing ERM frameworks, there is a very simple solution to most ERM problems. ERM is s...

Rims 2007

Counterfeit Products and Faulty Supply Chain

Companies confront a broad scope of risks, from compliance matters and regulatory risks to catastrophic threats and reputation risks. The risk management officer's principal role in most companies is to identify, analyze and manage risks for the company. However, the complicated risk profile involved in counterfeiting and the gray market can make it more difficult for risk managers to combat brand integrity risks. Johnson & Johnson's Medical Device & Diagnostics business (MD&D) is...

The Fight Between Fuel and Food

Surviving in the business world today means embracing sustainability on all levels -- economically, socially and environmentally. With the rapidly growing demand for alternative fuels, corn-based ethanol has emerged as the top substitute to alleviate the US' dependence on foreign oil and create a more renewable source of energy. But the rapid rise in ethanol production has led to concern about the possibility of major food shortages. Though ethanol plants have been breathing new life into rur...

Selecting and Using Risk Management Consultants

Two or three decades ago, when one of the only responsibilities a risk manager had was to purchase insurance, the concept of a risk management consultant did not even exist. Today, though, with the exponential growth in the number of areas in which a risk manager must be involved, it seems almost a foregone conclusion that you will need to utilize the services of a consultant at some point. According to Christine Ferrusi Ross, research director for Forrester Research, the place you begin your...

Datebook

Risk Profile

Mr. 10k

In the midst of its 57th year serving the risk management industry and while making preparations for the 45th Annual RIMS Conference & Exhibition in New Orleans, RIMS reached another major milestone when it welcomed its 10,000th member: Duke Daugherty, SVP, risk management at AIMCO. Daugherty oversees a self-insurance program of about $100 million. The practice of risk management has experienced a transformation in recent years. The world has seen social, political and business changes th...

Details

The Potential Downside of Quiet Productivity

Having great employees has an unrecognized downside. Every organization wants to have hard-working, highly motivated employees who want to keep working and making money. But workers who "suck it up," may not be paying attention to what their bodies are telling them. Worse, they may intentionally ignore their problems in order to keep the work and money flowing. Do not take a lack of complaints to mean a lack of hidden problems. Become a workplace detective. Further investigation and evaluatio...

Global Perspectives

Picking Your Risk Partner: Global, Local or Both?

Global competitors need global risk management strategies, services and support. But even the largest global players need local expertise and insight as well. No matter how prepared they are, global competitors continually must evaluate their needs and determine which risk management resources will work best. The benefits of affiliated risk management networks are plenty. Made up of independently owned entities operating in countries and regions around the world, this option can be a smart, s...

Outlook

Earning a Seat at the Table

When Accenture released the results of its most recent annual study on the top priorities for senior executives, risk management concerns topped the list for the first time in the history of the report. In the minds of corporate and public sector leaders, managing risk exceeded issues such as improving workforce performance and leveraging IT innovations. This elevated urgency indicates that risk managers are or should be playing much more significant roles within their organizations. One crit...

Publisher's Desk

Necropolis

Today, Rome is positively bursting with motor vehicles. Lots of them are those crazy little Vespa scooters that people somehow drive in massive schools, like fish, but never bump into each other or crash. Anything that is not a scooter is a sub-micro-compact car that you would have a very hard time finding in the US. The point of all of this is that it makes Rome and extremely noisy city. There is a natural depression in the land when you first enter it, and the sound of the modern city just ...

Case Study

Protecting Fort Knox

A new fire alarm was a long time coming and much needed at Fort Knox. In 2003, Fort Knox called on Freedom Communications of Louisville, KY, to completely upgrade its conventional fire alarm system in a number of key buildings at the base, including the 14 barracks that house military personnel and other residents. Brian Banta, VP of Freedom Communications, had many responsibilities as the provider to the base for such projects, including specifying the equipment for specific projects, orderi...

Fore Front

Jetblue's Black Eye

Through a series of poor operations decisions on a single day, JetBlue suffered enormous reputation damage to a brand that for six years had been known for two things -- low prices and customer satisfaction. Immediately, the company and its founder and CEO David Neeleman sought action. A signed message from Neeleman appeared on JetBlue's Web site and went out in an e-mail to all those in its frequent flyer program. And while it may read more like a note from an apologetic significant other, t...

Risk: The Final Frontier

For the past several decades, scientists have become increasingly concerned with the amount of junk flying around in space, technically referred to as orbital debris. The concern is that one day a speeding piece of this debris might smash a large spacecraft into hundreds of pieces, which in turn would start another chain reaction of wreckage. In early 2006, Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist for orbital debris at NASA, along with NASA colleague JC Liou, published an article in the journal Scie...

New Protocol for Reinsurance Coverage Disputes

In April 2005, a group of several prominent insurers met in London in attempt to identify those areas of inter-company disputes most ripe for reform and cooperation. It did not take long for the group to name the often disproportionate lawyer fees associated with reinsurance coverage disputes as a prime target. The International Reinsurance Industry Dispute Resolution Protocol was designed to provide a method for companies to mitigate fees and shorten the time between when a company learns of...

Benefits of Mediation

Risk in Brief

Gentlemen, Behold!

Boston bomb squads removed 38 of the mysterious devices before determining that they were actually electronic light boards depicting a middle-finger waving Mooninite, a character from the late-night animated show Aqua Teen Hunger Force on the Cartoon Network. Boston officials found little humor in the marketing gimmick and promptly arrested the two men responsible for installing the signs, charging them with disorderly conduct and placing a hoax device in a way that caused a panic. The city d...

Ron Shelp and Goliath

In an interview, author Ron Shelp talked about his book "Fallen Giant." Shelp said that the theme of the book is the story of an extraordinary company -- America's first reverse multinational. It starts with C.V. Starr, a remarkable man, whom Shelp regrettably never knew. Shelp added that Hank Greenberg, an extraordinary man of the insurance industry, ran the biggest insurance company in the world, and one of the biggest companies by any standards. Greenberg had a great legacy, Greenberg buil...

Florida Insurance Reform Sparks More Debate

After being beaten up by Mother Nature in 2004 and 2005, residents of Florida saw insurance premiums skyrocket past the point of tolerance as insurers attempted to hedge against catastrophes that seemed to have become more of a certainty than a risk. After much debate and controversy, Florida Governor Charlie Crist signed legislation in late January intended to address the problem and provide comprehensive insurance reform. So while the insurance reform bill has done what it intended to do by...

Italian Soccer Re-Evaluates Safety

In early February, an Italian soccer match turned tragic when police officer Filippo Raciti was killed while trying to stop a riot among fans. The magnitude of this event demanded that Italian soccer take steps to increase its security and safety procedures. In response, the Italian government issued new regulations that aim at hampering accidents during soccer games, which include halting the sale of prepaid blocks of tickets to traveling fan groups and a forbiddance to entertain relationshi...