Welcome to the second (and final) update of the 8th Annual Risk Management Institute of Australasia 2011 Conference here in Melbourne. 

Highlights of Day 2 for me were:

The CRO Forum that kicked off Day 2 was a great session.  Caroline James, Principal Adviser – Group Risk, Rio Tinto, Robert Maurich, CRO at CBH Group (a grain handler/commodity firm in WA), Geoffrey Copp, Head of Risk Management & Compliance at Zurich Australia and Anthony Ventura, CRO Worksafe Victoria debated a range of current risk management issues.

Caroline James provided great insights into how Risk Management can (and should) really only be an adviser to a geographical diverse organisation such as Rio Tinto (with over 77,000 employees around the globe).  Caroline explained that risk management in the Rio Tinto Group started off as a Guidance Note in 2005, was then followed up by a formal policy several years later and is now fully embedded as the normal way of doing business across the Group. 

Geoffrey Copp explained that at Zurich by “coming from a planning and forecasting background I was able to take an holistic approach, in an organisation that had had too much emphasis on operational risks”.  Copp said he had been able to “broaden the focus and embed a risk management attitude in the business”.  In addition, “every major business decision has to be made with reference to Board approved Risk Appetite Statements”.

In the Q&A session, Brian Potter, Head of Risk Management, Telecom NZ provided the conference with what I thought was quote of the day.  He explained that the role of risk management is “making the achievement of objectives more certain”.  I interviewed Brian later in the day and will post this interview in the coming weeks.

Brian Link, from Ernst & Young, gave a good overview of the current state of risk management.  Brian restated three key questions organisations should ask:

  1. Are we taking the right risks?
  2. Are we taking the right amount of risk?
  3. Are we adequately managing our risks?

A keynote presentation was given by Scott Clark, President of RIMS (USA).  It was a huge effort by Scott to fly to Australia for his session.  He provided real insights into the learnings from the Global Financial Crisis in the USA - and the soul searching that has gone on since to understand why there were so many failures in many of the governance, audit and risk controls across corporate America. 

Scott outlined the successful efforts by RIMS to lobby for the inclusion of key risk management provisions in recent legislation. Scott also applauded the Australia and New Zealand risk professions for leading the way globally with AS/NZS 4360, a precursor to the ISO31000.

I was also fortunate to interview Scott after his presentation and will likewise post this interview in the coming weeks.

The other notable highlight from the sessions I attended on Day 2 was a fascinating presentation by Jeff Floyd.  Jeff is a well known risk expert in the Victorian Government field.  Jeff outlined the approach to state and country wise risk issues.  Jeff recently presented a similar presentation to the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority in August (Google “2011 VMIA Risk Conference” for the presentation) .

The conference ended with a dinner and everyone concluded that the event had been an outstanding success.  The continued development of the risk profession in Australasia was evident, with evidence more and more organisations are committing resources to the effective management of risks.

 

Peter Deans.

 

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