Community update tools with social networks – there is a Facebook community as well as a LinkedIn community, and there are videos on YouTube relating to risk management. I really have been pleasantly surprised by the appetite that risk managers have to communicate with their peers.” As for the future of his own industry, Dennery believes that renewables are important but that it’s the diversification of energy sources that is key. “Renewable energy will never supply enough power to meet all the world’s needs. We can’t really consider covering the world in dams, windmills and solar farms. However, when we can harness renewable energy, we need to do it; so we’re talking about 20% or even 30% of energy production. If we can do that, it will prolong our access to fossil fuels. This is something we have to do.” The two key lessons, then, that other risk managers can learn from Dennery are the importance of managing relationships with the media and the ability to see the opportunities that are linked to risk. SR [READ MORE ONLINE] There is an archive of risk management profiles on www.strategic-risk.eu
technical people and the management team. Risk managers must be able to obtain allies in the company. The other people in the business have to see the risk manager as someone who helps, who brings something, not someone who takes away or limits activity. This is because our work as risk managers depends on what these people tell us about the running of the business; we have to be loved, not hated by the organisation.” How do you think risk management is evolving? “I’m not sure. When you talk with other risk managers, they say that risk management is evolving and that’s a good thing. But in reality, if the awareness and support of executive management is not increasing, risk management cannot develop effectively. I believe that the evolution that we are seeing in risk management is the result of the efforts of risk managers rather than increasing support from the board. The main factor is that there are many great people working in risk management, people who have great ideas and who have the intention of developing the discipline of risk management. However, companies’ boards need to give more support to these kinds of individuals.” How do you think the economic crisis is affecting risk managers? “I believe we are in a critical time. I think that we are in a time when dynamics are changing, there are lots of different pieces which are moving and changing place. For example, you have the Arab Spring and various economic convulsions. I think that risk managers are obliged to understand the implications of these events and also to raise themselves above, to have a more objective view of the situation. We have to be able to see these events from above so we can anticipate the consequences of these events and protect our companies. You have to have a global perspective of the situation and be able to react very quickly to changing factors. I think that this is the most critical economic situation in my time as a risk manager.” SR
Austrians living in regions that are in danger of floods or avalanches are unable to purchase insurance for natural disasters in their ‘red zones’ – high risk regions – because it does not exist. A request put forward by the country’s Versicherungsmakler (association for insurance brokers) asked Austria’s insurance industry and government to make insurance for natural disasters possible in every red zone region.
On its recent German launch, web-based collaboration platform for the industrial insurance sector inex24 was mired in controversy for its data security. Now ThyssenKrupp, Siemens, Tchibo and Bosch have jumped on board and made the platform popular among German insurance managers. ThyssenKrup was the first customer to successfully arrange its property renewal via the system.
The Nordic Risk and Insurance Summit (NORIS) called on insurers, reinsurers and businesses to tackle a growing array of emerging risks and to contend with the new key dynamic of an interconnected world. The consequences of risk ripples across the globe are extremely difficult to combat, warned Swiss Re head of emerging risk management Reto Schneide at the conference.
HOT ISSUE
DVS Conference 2011 Just days before the hustle and bustle of Bavaria’s annual Oktoberfest began in Munich, insurance and risk management experts gathered in the picturesque city at the annual DVS conference on 7 and 8 September to talk about the industry’s hottest topics. One issue was a discussion about the material damage caused by the recent catastrophes in Japan. Reiner Gleiss of Mitsui Sumitomo Germany released figures showing that a sum of €5.4bn was owed by industrial
insurers. Various (re)insurers have predicted the overall amount of damage to be more than €146bn. Addressing a more international issue, Agostino Galvagni of Swiss Re revealed that natural disasters have cost insurers worldwide around €70bn in the first half of 2011. He predicted the premium for natural disasters to rise significantly, saying: “Everything points towards the fact that premiums will now start to rise.”
[READ MORE ONLINE] You can download StrategicRISK’s own local language conference dailies here: goo.gl/G26qx
www.strategic-risk.eu [ OCTOBER 2011 ] StrategicRISK
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