Developing risk management: POSITIVE REFLECTIONS

If experience is required, then Rich Whitehouse is the right choice to host the silver anniversary of the Canadian Risk and Insurance Management Society’s conference.

As a delegate at the first conference 25 years ago, he is in a unique position to help risk managers look back on past achievements at this year’s event, “Reflections 2000”.

This year’s Canadian Risk and Insurance Management Society (CRIMS) conference is an anniversary Rich Whitehouse is not likely to forget. Not only was he among the delegates at the first conference 25 years ago, he also has the honor of chairing the event, set for October 15 to 18 in Edmonton, Alberta. Reflecting back on the changes that have shaped the risk management industry in Canada, and globally, will dominate the agenda, he says, providing a chance to learn from the past. It is also a chance to celebrate the 50th anniversary of RIMS.

Whitehouse’s own insurance career began after his graduation from the Bachelor of Commerce program at the University of Manitoba in 1965. His first job, with Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company, was followed by tenures at Federated and Canadian Surety, where he was Alberta casualty manager until 1975. He then joined the Government of Alberta’s new risk management division, moving through the ranks to assume his current position as Director Risk Management and Insurance in 1988.

His association with RIMS is similarly long-standing, beginning in 1975, and as a charter member of the Northern Alberta chapter since 1979. He has served as a full-time representative of both the Canadian Risk Management Council and its predecessor, the Canadian Chapters Committee. Professional development has been a major theme in Whitehouse’s activities, including his work as a charter member and past chair of the Grant MacEwan Insurance Advisory Council, which developed the college’s Insurance and Risk Management program. Also, he has been a member of the Caswell Committee, which created the Canadian professional designation for risk managers, CRM.

Changing times

Much has changed since that first CRIMS conference in 1975, Whitehouse notes. The first conference drew 60 risk managers against this year’s event which is expected to draw over 500 delegates. This growth is partly attributable to the changing nature of the conference and risk management as a profession. “It has become a conference of all areas of risk management, and includes our industry partners,” he says. Brokers, insurers and adjusters have become as much a part of the networking promoted through the conference as its education component. “Insurers and brokers should be concerned with client needs.” And, as testament to this concern, more than 70 sponsor booths are expected to fill Edmonton’s Shaw Conference Centre.

The conference will also highlight the expanding role risk managers have come to play within corporations. “On day one, we could have been looked at as insurance buyers,” he says. But the risk manager has “evolved substantially from that”, particularly in terms of the risk financing role. New financing options mean that risk management has become “much more than risks that are insurable or even transferable”. As buzzwords like “integrated basket” and “alternative risk transfer” have entered the profession, today’s risk managers are now actively concerned with “risks that never were and may not be insurable.”

And as risk managers explore the options offered through alternative forms of risk transfer, including self-insurance, the onus will be on insurers to step up and offer the new covers corporations will need. “The challenge to the [insurance] industry is product,” Whitehouse says.

Bridging the gaps

With increasing importance being placed on the risk management function within corporations, CRIMS represents a chance to bring together professionals from a variety of backgrounds for active discussion. “Everybody comes [to CRIMS] with their own types of concerns”, based on the particular industry they work in, he notes. It is this difference in perspective that enhances the value as an attendee of the conference, he observes, “because otherwise you don’t get a lot of new ideas”. There is no reason to think the problems faced by a risk manager in the public sector are different from those faced by one in the private sector, he asserts. And the interplay of professionals from a variety of backgrounds may lead to some surprising solutions for the issues being faced by everyone.

But chairing a conference that finds common ground for risk managers is also a challenge. Professionals from the different sectors are encouraged to hold their own meetings around the same time as the conference, to discuss issues specific to their industry, Whitehouse says. Conference sessions have been planned to highlight widespread issues: e-commerce, enterprise risk management, environmental and workplace risks, to name a few. A quiz show, mock trial and workshops on unexplored areas of risk, such as the kidnap and ransom session, will both entertain and inform delegates, he hopes.

And further testament to the growing importance of the risk management function, even in the smallest business, is the introductory course “Risk Management 101”. Aimed at “the new risk manager”, or the part-time risk manager, the course is designed as a starting point applicable to any industry. Professional development is “of particular importance” for the Canadian RIMS chapters, Whitehouse comments. The conference is not only a vehicle for educating risk managers, but also a way to raise funds. Those funds are split between the chapters and the CRMC, and have been use in the past to develop new Canadian education models. It is a proud achievement of the Canadian group that education models developed here have been borrowed by the U.S. chapters of RIMS, thereby setting the standard for professional development.

Home court advantage

As the role of risk managers has developed, so has the size of CRIMS. In taking on the role of chair, Whitehouse discovered how important the conference is to its host community. Recently, the Northern Alberta chapter of RIMS “was in danger of folding”, he says. “Edmonton has lost a number of companies and [risk management] people to other cities.” But when the CRMC awarded its silver anniversary event to Edmonton, Whitehouse found himself “overwhelmed” by the response of volunteers. “When the challenge of the conference came up, we had people coming out of the woodwork.”

And, rather than finding himself in the position of having to elicit help from the area’s risk managers, he found the biggest challenge was managing such a large, enthusiastic group. The conference represents a rebirth for the Northern Alberta chapter, a chance to show off the City of Edmonton and a truly Canadian event. Despite being RIMS’ largest regional conference, CRIMS has an intimacy that makes it unique, Whitehouse says. “It’s so much easier to network with people here…and you get business cards that are more relevant [to Canadian risk managers].” As the conference heads west next month, he and his committee hope to prove that “bigger isn’t always better”.