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In its 2014 “Business Risk Index,” Travelers surveyed more than 1,100 businesses on the top risks they perceive and how ready they are to mitigate those threats. Overall, respondents clearly see an increasingly risky world around them, but feel notably unprepared to handle the risks.
The top seven threats, in order of reported concern, are: medical cost inflation, increasing employee benefit costs, legal liability, broad economic uncertainty, cyberrisk, complying with laws, and attracting and retaining talent.
Check out this infographic for more of the study’s insights:
Last week’s issue of National Underwriter profiled the industry’s “Living Legends: 10 Visionaries Who Fundamentally Changed Insurance Forever — For Better or Worse.” Their online supplement took it even furthering, offering a list of “The Top 25 Living Legends of Insurance.”
However, by far my favorite description has to go to Insurance Information Institute (III) head honcho Robert Hartwig, who National Underwriter calls an “Omnipresent Guru.”
You might think Robert Hartwig is omnipresent. When he’s not on TV giving the insurance perspective on a wide range of issues or being quoted in various national publications, Hartwig is traveling across the globe giving presentations on the industry.
“I make about 100 presentations a year,” says the president of the Insurance Information Institute. “It’s very common for me to be in two or three different cities every week—and they’re not near each other.”
But despite always being in such high demand, Hartwig has developed a reputation for himself and the I.I.I. for being a credible source of information in the insurance world.
“If you were to ask me which of the countless websites available to keep in touch with our industry today, I’d say the best is I.I.I.,” says Hank Watkins, president of Lloyd’s America. “Bob is very good at what he does. He’s a true spokesperson for the industry.”
A while back, I wrote a story on racial diversity — or, more accurately, the lack thereof — in the risk and insurance industry. There were several people I talked to whose words have stayed with me even almost four years later. Specifically, I remember a few days spent in Philadelphia at the annual conference of the National African-American Insurance Association (NAAIA).
It was an interesting place to be while I, a white guy, was writing about what it is like for nonwhites to work in an industry that even today remains racially homogeneous to a staggering degree. Of the few hundred attendees there, I was one of about five white people. The awkwardness that I felt by this (at times … everyone was overwhelmingly welcoming), especially while walking around with a reporter hat on essentially asking everyone “So … what’s it like to be black?,” provided an excellent means to frame my understanding of how black people working in insurance must feel all the time. It is just strange to be unlike virtually everyone else around you from such a fundamental, identity-establishing perspective.
It was somewhat ironic, then, that the most enduring memory I have from those few days was provided by another person just like me: a white dude who stood out like a tourist. Jay Fishman, CEO and chairman of Travelers, gave a speech to discuss what his company was doing to try to promote better diversity at his company.
[The September 2008] NAAIA conference in Philadelphia was particularly memorable as it marked both the association’s tenth anniversary as well as the first time the CEO of a major insurer gave a keynote address. Travelers chairman and CEO Jay Fishman spoke to around 200 people over lunch and was visibly emotional as he articulated his feelings on the industry’s legacy of exclusion and his company’s struggles to overcome the past.
“I’m outside my zone of comfort and to not acknowledge that, I’d be lying,” said Fishman. “I’m in awe of this group. My awkwardness is born out of sensitivity — not out of an unwillingness to tackle the subject.”
While Fishman admitted that Travelers may not have been focused on diversity for as long as some of the other carriers and brokers in the industry, he also expressed a personal commitment and discussed his company’s recent diversity program advancements. “There has been an awakening to the inequities of the past,” said Fishman. “We’re not where we want to be, but at best, we’re headed in the right direction. At best.”
When I wrote that he was visibly emotional, I mean that he might have actually been crying on stage. He was clearly choked up throughout his presentation and really seemed to be going through something while addressing an audience of black people and telling them that, essentially, his industry was still failing to include them just as much as it had been doing for the past century.
I’m not sure exactly what all this has to do with the video below. But the clip was made by Travelers and it shows Fishman talking about how he has “been a remarkable beneficiary of the American opportunity” while discussing how his grandmother immigrated to the United States from Russia when she was 13 years old to work a sewing machine.
So that just struck a chord and reminded me of a time when he seemed to also realize how unique his American story was — and how genuinely I once saw him expressing how much he wishes that others could benefit from that same opportunity just as much as he has.
Saturday, January 28, is Data Privacy Day, a day designed to promote awareness about privacy and education about best privacy practices. With that in mind, we decided to devote today’s and tomorrow’s posts to data privacy and how companies can achieve more secure, robust methods to dealing with the ever-present risk of cyber crime and data theft. Today’s post is by Tim Francis, business insurance management and professional liability and cyber insurance lead for Travelers.
IT departments play a pivotal role in identifying and mitigating exposures to cyber threats. However, there are risks that exist outside the company network. Businesses may be overlooking other points of vulnerability where a hacker can potentially attack, including but not limited to company cell phones, smart phones, tablets, laptops and other mobile devices. Every type of technology brings the potential for a cyber crime. Even if every employee is securing their personal and work technologies constantly, information can be compromised.
Institutions that understand the commitment necessary to create a robust anti-fraud program have a plan in place that involves numerous security options. This includes proper breach response planning, establishing information, and insurance protection. Corporate risk managers can be a valuable asset to their companies by becoming part of the planning process. They can also activate their professional networks and refer their companies to other advisers for additional guidance including lawyers, crisis communications specialists and other professionals.
Corporate risk managers should also advise their companies on the importance of employee engagement as part of a cyber risk management plan. When employees understand the potential impact on the company (possibly including their job security) they are likely to be more willing to take the necessary precautions to protect company information by following established protocols for information security. Employees should understand the costs associated with addressing a breach including having to install credit monitoring for hacking victims, liability expenses and potentially losing business and even deterring new business opportunities from prospective clients who get wind of security failures. Getting full buy-in and participation for mitigating cyber risk from the top down in an organization can make a significant impact on reducing cyber exposures.
Operating without a cyber risk management plan could have a crippling effect on a company’s reputation. The way in which companies respond to cyber threats can be scrutinized by clients, stakeholders and the public, especially because victims are often directly impacted by slow response. For example, if a company does not respond quickly, victims of the crime may miss opportunities to cancel credit cards and alert their banks about suspicious activity. The window for fraudulent activity can be prolonged by companies that are unprepared to deal with a cyber breach. With a strategy in place for responding to a cyber event, businesses can execute against their plan and focus on getting back to business as usual.
As cyber attacks dominate headlines, companies must make efforts to properly secure both their technology and networks. Recent media reports have identified major companies, organizations and governmental entities across the U.S. as unfortunate examples of what can happen when a business is unprepared for a cyber crisis. Corporate risk managers can help their companies to adapt their risk management strategies and practices so that their employees and their customers remain ahead of emerging cyber risks.
