Who doesn’t love a top 10 list?
They’re quick and easy to digest and can be informative or even entertaining…
And when it comes to risk, there’s a plethora of top lists to choose from ranging from the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Risks Report to industry-specific lists like Aon’s Top Risks Facing Insurance Organizations.
Unfortunately, what many organizations assume about these lists is that if a particular risk is a top risk in the report, then it must also apply to their organization as well. They don’t use the top risk list to jumpstart a conversation, which is totally okay, but instead use them to drive what their top risks are.
While this may make sense on the surface, it also leads to a common complaint I hear from executives that risk management, specifically list-based risk management, simply regurgitates what they already know.
The fact is top risks will (and should!) vary from one company to the next. Why? Surface-level factors like size, territory, corporate structure, and industry, plus deeper factors like leadership, experience, perspective and willingness and capacity to take risk.
However, another (often overlooked) reason that referring to generic top 10 risk lists can be problematic is none of the risks on these lists are tied to the company’s strategic or mission-critical business objectives – a/k/a the company’s most important value drivers.
Appearing in the Q4 edition of Carrier Management, today’s article linked below explores questions companies can (and should) be asking to identify its specific top 10 risks. Although we have discussed this subject on the blog (here and here), today’s article includes an additional question, plus other insights for helping a company identify the top things that could derail it from achieving its goals.
Similar to previous articles appearing in Carrier Management, the following is written to and includes examples relevant to property and casualty insurance carriers, but the topic and methodology is applicable to any type of organization in any industry.
5 Questions to Ask to Identify Your Company-Specific Top Risks
How does your company use generic top risk reports?
We are interested in learning more about how your company approaches this resource. Simply join the conversation on LinkedIn to share your thoughts.
If your company is struggling to understand its true top risks that could put strategic goals and the company’s future in jeopardy, reach out today and schedule a meeting to discuss your specific challenge(s) and potential solutions.
