Our first decade has been, among many things, an invaluable learning process - and we intend to build on that in the decade to come, says Sue Copeman
I hope that you have enjoyed reading our decennial issue. We are thrilled to be celebrating 10 years of publishing and look forward to the next 10 years when we hope that risk management will go from strength to strength.
We will continue to do our utmost to support the European risk management profession. We already have some exciting plans in the pipeline – production of issues tailored to the specific needs of the French and German markets, written in their own language, a supplementary publication on captive insurance to give risk managers the information they need about the captive market, and a risk manager’s “tool box” – a guide to the do’s and don’ts when faced with a range of particular scenarios.
At the beginning of 2010, we launched our campaign on improving the profile of the risk manager. We see this as an ongoing initiative and will continue to provide comment and features specifically aimed at helping risk managers enhance their skills and address and communicate issues that are dear to the hearts of their executive boards.
And, of course, we will continue and build on providing articles on relevant risk management topics and our internet based news service. In order to keep abreast with what’s important to you, we plan to attend most if not all of the European risk management associations’ annual conferences so that we can gauge your concerns at first hand.
We tend to focus our contents on three pillars – innovation, best practice and community. It works for us and I hope it does for you too.
We also welcome your feedback and suggestions. One of the very rewarding aspects of editing StrategicRISK has been that risk managers have given me unsolicited comment on what they like, or don’t like, about the magazine. I really appreciate hearing your views so please keep them coming. They don’t go into a vacuum. I always respond and nearly always act on them.
For example, until now I’ve resisted the introduction of a “letters page” for two reasons. First, although I do get emails headed “letter to the editor”, they tend to be from risk management suppliers and pretty self-serving. Second, having a regular space for letters can be difficult in a “dry” period when no-one writes in. But if you feel that an occasional letters page would be good, please let me know.
I edit StrategicRISK but I am very aware that it’s your publication. We have considerable resources, for example in conducting research, so please let me know the subjects in which you’re most interested, or the focus that you would like on a particular area.
Risk management has been through some interesting times in the last 10 years. I think that one of the most difficult aspects is that, when a risk manager does his or her job really well and embeds risk management throughout their organisation, that organisation tends to think that it doesn’t really need its risk manager any more. And if the risk manager doesn’t do their job well, then they’re out of the job anyway.
That sounds a gloomy scenario – we’ve seen it in the past – but it doesn’t have to be the future. If the last 10 years have taught us nothing else, it is that the business environment changes rapidly and companies have to follow suit. Risk managers of the next decade have to have their fingers on the pulse. If a new trend is materialising, they need to be aware of it, planning and communicating an appropriate risk strategy. In that way, they become an essential part of the organisation’s management team – rather than an insurance buyer and/or the bearer of negative warnings when the rest of the organisation wants to go full steam ahead.
Have a good next 10 years – StrategicRISK plans to.
