The President of RIMS talks about risk management
Years ago, I spoke at a RIMS conference in Seattle. While they have produced some excellent pieces of thought leadership (under the leadership of Carol Fox), I was struck at the time by the dominance of people with a background in insurance. The majority of speakers didn’t seem to understand enterprise risk management (the big picture) and the need to take risk for success. Their response to increasing levels of risk was to increase insurance coverage.
That has clearly changed.
RIMS has a new president who seems to “get it”. Jennifer Santiago was interviewed by Risk & Insurance and said:
At its core, my focus is always on maximizing opportunities while keeping a close eye on potential adverse risks and outcomes. Balancing the risks with the rewards has always been my priority.
To be successful, risk professionals can’t stand still and become complacent. We need to get out from behind our desks and drive intelligent risk taking within our organizations. We need to build capabilities around risk assessment and scenario planning so that we can strengthen organizational resiliency. We must build in resiliency and asset protection while also supporting opportunities that spur growth and innovation.
I love two aspects of this:
- “maximizing opportunities while keeping a close eye on potential adverse risks and outcomes. Balancing the risks with the rewards”
- “get out from behind our desks and drive intelligent risk taking”
This sound like [humble] me.
Is this also you?
I welcome your comments.
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Norman Marks on Governance, Risk Management, and Internal Audit 
Jennifer is legit!
Agree Norman. I’ve been a member of RIMS for two decades and have presented at RIMS conferences. Early on I shared your concerns about the organization being too focused on insurance. But RIMS has done a superb job of reinventing itself to become an organization that goes beyond insurable risks. I still struggle with addressing the upside of risks in organizations I work with, however. It helps to get out into the business, understand their world, and share the fundamentals of risk and risk management.
What are your thoughts about the RIMS “Risk Maturity Model” tool? I did not find it particularly insightful. In fact, it was rather cumbersome and confusing, and at times, it felt like it was asking trick questions. I much prefer baselining against COSO.
I much prefer my maturity model and find the COSO ERM framework less than useful. You can find the model in Risk Management for Success.
Thanks! I’ll check it out.