Risk managers have the “perfect conditions” to shine but need the right skills

Places have opened for Airmic’s first risk management conference – the ERM Forum – as the association expands its commitment to enterprise risk management.

Today’s risk professionals have a unique opportunity to influence and shape their businesses for the better – but they need the knowledge and tools to do so. This will be the key theme of Airmic’s first ever enterprise risk management conference, taking place on November 10.

The ERM Forum, a one-day event, will be for risk professionals of all levels and aims to provide the essential building blocks for risk managers to excel in enterprise risk management and to raise their profile within their company.

Claire Combes, chair of Aimic’s risk management steering group, said she is really excited about the inaugural ERM Conference, which is being billed as “for risk managers, by risk managers,” and urged all risk professionals to consider attending.

“The line-up for the day is first class and wide ranging, but what underpins all of it is a sense that now, more than ever before, risk managers really have the chance to make a positive difference to businesses,” she said.

Recent guidance to boards from the Financial Reporting Council, high-profile risk events such as Brexit, and the growing status of risk management on boardroom agendas are providing the “perfect conditions” for risk managers to step up their game, she said. “More than ever, senior executives need to lean on us. We can really show that our profession is about more than avoiding risks – that we can really add value.”

Achieving this is not easy, she added. “Risk professionals need the right tools, the knowledge, and ultimately the confidence, to demonstrate this and that’s where Airmic fits in.”

The conference is likely to become an annual event as Airmic expands its commitment to risk management. “We have perhaps not been well enough known in the past for our work on enterprise risk management,” Combes added. “But not anymore and the ERM Forum is the perfect place to start.”

In keeping with this theme, the ERM Forum will also see Airmic launch its joint report with the Chairman’s Forum, entitled Framing the board conversation on managing and reporting risk. The report is a succinct but detailed guide on how boards can add business value through risk management.

As well as drawing out the implications of recent FRC guidance, the report will stress that risk management must be integral to how the board and executives lead and manage the business, and that risk management should not simply be viewed as a ‘tick box exercise’.  Although aimed at chairmen and other business executives, it will include important messages for risk professionals.   

The agenda for the ERM Forum includes masterclasses and presentations on subjects such as boardroom risk conversations, strategy, crisis management and the risks of the future. Meanwhile, there will also be a choice of five practical workshops covering:

• Strategy – how risk maturity can add value to business performance
• Innovation – how risks are changing as the business world changes
• Enterprise – what is risk culture and what is the risk manager’s role
• Political – Brexit scenario analysis in action
• People – business travel and duty of care in a riskier world

There will also be a small exhibition attended by Airmic service providers from the risk management sector.

The ERM Forum is free to Airmic members. For more information, or to sign up to the event, please click here.