StrategicRISK marks its 100th edition with a review of its first 15 years

Over lunch at a London sushi bar in 2000, David Gable, who was then the chief executive of Airmic, and insurance writer Lee Coppack conceived a plan for a new publication and website for risk managers.

This idea emerged after the publication of several governance guidelines in the late 1990s. These aimed to tackle significant flaws in internal corporate governance following scandals such as the one surrounding Robert Maxwell, the notorious media tycoon who plundered more than £400m (€542m) from his Mirror Group employees’ pension funds to shore up his companies.

During the lead up to SR’s inception, a harsh spotlight was shone on UK corporate governance and internal controls. Governance guides such as Cadbury (1992), Greenbury (1995) and Hampel (1998) set out to address corporate governance failures. Then, in 1999, the Turnbull report was published, detailing recommendations on best practice in internal control for UK-listed companies. Although recognising the importance of risk management, the guidance placed a greater obligation on risk professionals to improve audit controls and risk prevention – a factor that prompted Gable and Coppack’s idea to create a publication that would inform on and analyse such developments.

With the backing of publisher Southern Magazines (now Newsquest Specialist Media), SR was launched in June 2000 at the Airmic conference in Birmingham.

Early days

Sue Copeman was the first editor. With more than 20 years of experience in insurance writing, including at the Financial Times, first as an in-house editor of World Insurance Report, then as a freelance consultant editor on the FT’s insurance newsletters and author of several FT management reports, she was the perfect choice. Despite her insurance writing background, Copeman was “determined that SR take a broader view of risk”.

As she wrote in a 2010 edition of the magazine: “I like to think that SR has always looked holistically at risk, covering insurance where appropriate but relating it to the far wider concerns of many risk managers, who view insurance as just one of the instruments in their toolbox.

“With the huge focus on risks that has occurred in the past 10 years [since the launch of SR], I believe that we launched at a very opportune time.”

Starting out as an information brand for UK corporate risk managers and insurance buyers, it soon became clear that the magazine and website would play a useful role in interpreting the effect that European regulations would have on businesses.

In October 2003, SR took on a wider remit, expanding its reach from the UK to other European countries. For the first time, it appeared at a non-UK conference, the FERMA forum in Rome. It also published a daily conference newsletter, covering all the news and comments from the event.

Nowadays, SR has grown its European presence, reporting on key markets such as France, Germany, Spain and Belgium. More recently, it turned its attention to Central and Eastern Europe as risk management practices develop there.

Growth has not only been geographical. Since 2000, SR has expanded its range of events, special reports and supplements. In 2001, the brand hosted its first roundtable discussion, bringing together senior risk managers to London to promote and share best practice. Others followed – risk-specific roundtables, country-focused roundtables and the presidents’ roundtable, where leaders of risk management associations came together to discuss latest trends and developments – all of which spawned several reports and guides.

In time, larger half- and full-day conferences were organised.

Going global

More recently, SR has taken its business model further afield, launching in Asia-Pacific in 2013. Starting as an online news service, SR in Asia is now a multiplatform information brand with a quarterly magazine and a series of events that reach risk managers from China through to Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia. Only two years after its launch, SR Asia was recognised by the Institute of Risk Management, which awarded the brand the Risk Management Journalism Award – an accolade that, as one reader remarked, not only recognises SR’s “comprehensive coverage of risk management-related issues”, but also its achievement in helping “to connect the risk managers in this region like never before”.

Looking to the future

After 15 years and 100 magazines, the SR team has no intention of stopping. Indeed, following its success in Asia-Pacific, in April SR is launching in the Middle East with events, including an inaugural Middle East and Africa Risk and Insurance Awards, held in conjunction with sister title GR.

Plans for an online news service, aimed at insurance and risk managers, will be announced at a risk and (re)insurance event at the Four Seasons, Jumeirah beach, Dubai, on 20 April.

Not bad for a magazine thought up in a sushi bar.