Author Archives: Emily Holbrook

About Emily Holbrook

Emily Holbrook is a former editor of the Risk Management Monitor and Risk Management magazine. You can read more of her writing at EmilyHolbrook.com.
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RIMS ERM Conference: ERM Best Practices

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It’s everything enterprise risk management here at the first annual RIMS ERM conference in San Diego. One of the first sessions of the day focused on new research by APQC (a business research firm) and IBM on the evolution of ERM into a critical discipline that helps to clarify and fortify strategic decision-making.

Speaking on the topic of ERM were Grace Crickette, chief risk officer of the University of California and Rob Torok, executive consultant of IBM Global Business Services. Both risk management professionals stressed the importance of ERM within any organization and any industry, stating that the CRO’s main responsibility is to identify potential events that could affect the company. “You, as a CRO, can’t say ‘that can’t happen to us,'” said Torok. “You must keep a broad view of all possible scenarios.”

And, as both speakers agreed, you must “make friends” with the sometimes-dreaded internal audit.

“Risk management is how management stays out of trouble,” said Crickette. “You are married to internal audit and yes, you will need lots of marriage counseling.”

APQC’s research found two examples of internal audit interplay and integration:

  • Marathon — audit plan is crafted with full view of enterprise risk and mitigation goals.
  • Intuit —  risk committee membership consists of the chief financial officer, general counsel, vice president of internal audit and the chief risk officer.

While successfully implementing an internal audit process is important, it’s also important that a company not only have one, single definition of risk when it comes to ERM, but that it also has one, single definition of “impact” in terms of how an possible risk will impact a company. “With the definition of impact, there’s  high, medium and low,” said Torok. “Well what do you consider high, medium and low?”

And in terms of companies successfully using online ERM platforms, there are a few standouts:

  • Intuit’s ERM software (internal use only)
  • The University of California’s Excel-based risk assessment tool (publicly available here)
  • Caterpillar’s voting tools and simplified reporting requirements (internal only)

(In our November issue, we ran an ERM case study involving Caterpillar, which you can view here.)

Stay tuned for more to come from the first annual RIMS ERM Conference.

Grace Crickette, Rob Torok and moderator Mary Driscoll discuss ERM best practices.

 

The CLM Women’s Forum: Tackling Social Media

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Yesterday was the 2nd annual CLM Women’s Forum. Held at the Walter Reade Theatre in Lincoln Center, the event drew more than 200 women from the fields of law, risk management and insurance. One of the engaging panel discussions was on the topic of social media and social networking. Leading this discussion was Holly Maust, president of Interactive Swim, a social media strategy company. Holly shared with us her wisdom on the topic, including:

  • Companies should harness the power of LinkedIn and Twitter — something not all companies have done, and those that do use these platforms usually aren’t using them to the best of their ability.
  • LinkedIn is the most important social media platform out there, but companies and entrepreneurs must learn to market themselves on LinkedIn without being “spammy.”
  • LinkedIn “recommendations” are the new job references. Embrace them.
  • Leverage yourself as a leader with your brand using Twitter, following three steps:
  1. Listen — where are people talking about your product?
  2. Engage — social media is a two-way conversation.
  3. Learn — stay agile and flexible by staying on top of new social media.
  • Do it the right way and do it ethically.

On the (somewhat) other side of the spectrum, Lori Seidenberg, vice president of enterprise risk management at Centerline Capital Group, sounded off against the use of social media in the workplace, saying her employer has considered restricting access to social media sites. And however much it hurts to hear, she has a few good points, including:

  • Social media hurts workplace productivity.
  • Engaging in social media and the various quizzes, games, applications, etc., that come along with some sites, breeds spam, some of which passes through a company’s server potentially causing cyber risks.
  • If you have something on your screen that another employee finds offensive, they can file a lawsuit.

In closing, Seidenberg stated that social media litigation is the next big wave.

Scary, and, unfortunately, true.

 

The 5 Companies Hit Hardest by the Thailand Floods

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Thailand’s worst flooding in five decades has affected companies in every industry, from automotive to technology to pharmaceuticals and beyond. As we saw with the earthquake in Japan, it’s a company’s supply chain that is affected most when natural disasters strike.

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Thailand is a midsize country of 67 million people and its outsized importance in global supply chains is now becoming clear. Here are 5 companies most affected by the historical floods:

  1. Toyota — It seems as though any natural disaster affects this automotive manufacturer. Toyota announced today that it will suspend production at its plants in North American on Saturday, citing an interruption in the supply chain of some Thai-made components. Toyota plants in Indiana, Kentucky and Ontario, Canada, will be shut down until the situation in Thailand improves. As of last Friday, the floods had resulted in an output loss of 37,500 vehicles in the Southeast Asian country since Toyota idled three plants there October 10th. That number could potentially climb to 250,000 by mid-November. If that happens, it is estimated that operating profit could be reduced by $1.6 billion.
  2. Ford — On a conference call yesterday, Ford Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth stated that the carmaker may lose production of 30,000 vehicles. Though Ford’s assembly plant is not affected, their supply chain is. The company said the Thai floods have cut fourth-quarter production so far by 17,000 vehicles due to supplier issues. That number could climb to 30,000. Ford said it is “working closely with its affected suppliers to return to production as quickly as possible and to minimize any potential impact in other regions.”
  3. Lenovo — The Chinese computer maker said yesterday that it expects its supply of hard disk drives to tighten “through the first quarter of next year.” Thailand supplies approximately 40% of the global output of hard disk data storage devices, meaning Lenovo is not the only company within the industry experiencing interruption issues. Western Digital and Seagate Technology have both said they expect to face a shortage of parts soon.
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    Because of this, Apple announced they expect a shortage in the coming months of disk drives for their products, specifically the company’s Mac lines, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook .

  4. Canon — The Tokyo-based company has recently revised its full-year financial outlook based on concerns about the impact of flooding in Thailand. The company said the Thai flooding will lower its sales and operating profit by Y50 billion ($660,000) and Y20 billion ($264,000), respectively, in the fourth quarter.
  5. Sharp — Having recently announced that the company is almost fully recovered from the business interruption it experienced after the Japan earthquake in March, Japan’s number one liquid-crystal display maker is now stating that the Thai floods may affect revenue.

    Although Sharp’s manufacturing facilities in Thailand weren’t damaged, the company’s inability to secure certain parts from suppliers hit by the flooding may result in tens of billions of yen in lost revenue, said Sharp Executive Vice President Toshio Adachi at a press conference.

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As companies scramble to obtain parts from other regions of the world, we are reminded that supply chain risk management is an often-overlooked segment of the discipline…until disaster strikes.

8.6 Million Californians Participate in ShakeOut

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Today at 10:20 a.m. Pacific time, many Californians participated in the Great California ShakeOut, a state-wide drill that helps people and organizations be better prepared for major earthquakes. Wherever they were at that moment this morning, those who participated practiced the drop, cover and hold on technique as if there were a major earthquake occurring at that moment.

In an article I penned in the October issue of Risk Management, I summed up the history of this gargantuan drill.

Started in 2008, the Great California ShakeOut began as the Great Southern California ShakeOut — an effort by scientists and emergency managers to inform the public about earthquake preparedness. The drill was based on the ShakeOut Scenario, a comprehensive description of the destruction a magnitude 7.8 earthquake on the San Andreas fault would cause in Southern California, which was organized by the United States Geological Survey’s Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project. In 2008, the ShakeOut became the largest earthquake drill in U.S. history with 5.4 million participants spanning eight counties in Southern California. This year, more than eight million are expected to participate in California alone with Nevada, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia practicing the “drop, cover and hold on” technique as well.

The drill has since spread to Japan, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Alaska, Turkey and Chile. Below is a video produced by the Great California ShakeOut team showing the exact drill millions followed this morning.