ALS Risk Articles and Information
Tis the Season to be Jolly...
It is indeed the season – with Christmas and New Year around the corner – surely, with a few holiday parties in the middle. While all of these are fun, our mindset is, as always, on how to manage risk while planning a holiday event. Our blog outlines a few simple steps an organization can take to reduce its risks while celebrating the season.
One of the biggest concerns of any business hosting a holiday party is ensuring that their employees get home safely. This article from Uber, “How to use Uber for your company’s holiday party”. outlines the options including using Uber to schedule rides, shuttle multiple employees to and from your event, and generate ride passes.
U.S. Insurance Firms Poised to Raise Prices
The article, “It’s the Moment Insurers Have Been Waiting For: Time to Raise Your Prices” appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Friday speaking about the pressures that the insurance industry has experienced due to the multitude of catastrophic (“CAT”) claims in 2017. The year has accounted for many types of catastrophes including Hurricane, Flood, Earthquake and Bushfire so pressures on the reinsurance market across all lines will be significant.
Time will tell as to the real impact of these claims on future premiums but I would suspect that insurers will be trying to get rate increases, especially on CAT prone risks.
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need help managing claims and/or insurance programs.
Insurance Coverage Purchase Strategies
The general insurance purchasing process is deeply flawed and prevents buyers from fully understanding what they are buying. Read the recent article by Albert Sica which outlines the strategy business owners need to use in order to secure competitive coverage needed to protect their businesses.
Cyber Strategy and Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)
Last week, I attended an excellent Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) workshop hosted by NC State University which highlighted the myriad of issues impacting the maturity of ERM within organizations.
ERM lets companies take a broader, more methodical approach to identifying risk exposures and areas within the organization that could precipitate such event like a cyber breach.
The expenses an organization can incur as a result of a cyber breach can reach astronomical proportions and can negatively impact a company’s bottom line or in the most extreme cases bring the whole organization to a complete halt.
The article I co-authored with my colleague, Jon Edwards, Cyber Strategy and Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), provides a lot of useful links as well as the steps your organization can take to establish a proper risk framework.
While the topic of cyber security is at the top of the risk list for any CEO, instead they should consider how adopting an Enterprise Risk Management framework will give them greater transparency of the risk exposure their organization is facing.
Cyber – Attacks on Executives
Your company’s business plan, financial and other confidential information can be breached by something as simple as you opening a seemingly innocent email. Corporate espionage is scary and quite real and Executives and Board Members are especially susceptible. We see examples of these types of attacks in the media everyday. The recent article from NYSE Corporate Board Member Magazine describes the careful planning that goes behind these attacks and provides some useful tips on how to protect your organization. It is a must read for any Executive. Click to read the full article “Becoming a Victim: How Executives and Board Members Unknowingly Fall Victim to Cyber-Attacks”.
A Contract Compliance Framework Can Reduce Risk
Monitoring insurance compliance in contracts is an important, albeit challenging, risk mitigation strategy. Read Al Sica’s recent article on the subject posted on Construction Executive Magazine website.
“A Contract Compliance Framework Can Reduce Risk” – by Albert Sica
Email Risk Management
If you subscribe to our email list, you might have read our comments regarding a recent article, “How to Master Email” discussing the risks posed by email in the workplace, despite the advantages of ‘e-discovery’ and permanent correspondence logging. You might find these email ‘best practices’ will save you time and money, increase your productivity, and even improve conversational clarity. A good ole’ fashioned phone call hasn’t gone out of style.
- The “three email” rule – often people email each other to death…email should be used to support clear communication. If after the third email the parties are still going back and forth and the issue is not resolved we are strongly encouraging a “good ole fashioned” phone call…
- Proofread your email carefully before you hit “send”. While useful, spell check is not a panacea and can frequently miss words that will change the meaning of your whole email. Errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation can damage your personal and your firm’s credibility, as well as dramatically alter the meaning of the document.
- Don’t interrupt what you are working on to check your email. The article in Executive Travel magazine quotes BBC news who said that workers distracted by email suffer a fall in IQ more than twice of that found in marijuana smokers. Immediately answer only those emails that are truly urgent and you will see improvement in your productivity and the quality of your work.
- Do not leave the subject line blank – many people delete subjectless emails. Email recipients often decidewhich email to open first by reading the subject line, so make sure the subject of your email is reflective of the purpose and point of the email.
So next time you feel like the emails will never end, remember you can help cut through the tedious back and forth, one sentence responses and be clear, concise and stay productive!
Click to read the article “Hurricane Sandy – Insurance Lessons Learned About Flood, Wind and Hurricanes” which appeared in the February Edition of Property Owner’s Association (POA) Newsletter.
Click to read the article “Risk Management – Fine Print” which appeared in Risk Management Magazine.
Click to read the article “POINT: Political Risk Must be Folded into ERM” which appeared in Risk & Insurance Online.
