HONOLULU--A large number of risk managers view terrorism as alooming threat, but not to their own companies, according to anindustry survey.

The survey, titled "Excellence in Risk Management III, The Stateof Risk Management," conducted by Marsh, polled 866 members of theRisk & Insurance Management Society from midsize to largeorganizations, from December 2005 to January 2006.

Christopher A. Duncan, managing director with Marsh USA inAtlanta, told National Underwriter that the survey found moreorganizations are embracing strategic risk management--whichfocuses more on the management aspects of risk management than themore traditional risk financing and insurance aspects.

The study found that 77 percent of companies with a strategicrisk management style said risk management was a key priorityversus 45 percent of companies with a traditional style. It alsofound that 76 percent of companies with a strategic style allocate"sufficient resources to manage risks effectively" versus 43percent using a traditional risk management style.

Mr. Duncan said newer entrants into the risk managementprofession from nontraditional backgrounds are "bringing freshleadership to risk management that wasn't there before."

The trend, he said, was backed up by an interactive survey ofaudience members attending a seminar at the RIMS annual conferencehere. That poll revealed 20 percent of the audience had been in therisk management profession for five years or less.

"They are coming from internal audit, finance and legal," hesaid. "All areas where people on the enterprise risk managementside are coming from, because senior leadership is looking forpeople who can come in and lead across the functions, not justmanage a function."

He said generalists with a diverse management background aredesirable because they understand how a company operates at avariety of levels.

But rather than be intimidated, Mr. Duncan said risk managersshould view this as an opportunity, because they are "goodgeneralists" from the onset.

"You can't be a risk manager without an understanding of legalprinciples, marketing, advertising, operations and finance," hesaid. However, "it's the depth of that diversity of experience thatis the challenge. They may know a little bit about everything, butthese general management types know a lot more about moresubjects."

So while opportunity exists, he warned that ignoring this trend"could have career implications."

Mr. Duncan explained that to be successful 10 or 15 years ago, arisk manager needed a good understanding of insurance buying,claims and loss control. Today to be successful, he said, "you needto be able to talk about brand issues, reputation issues, societalrisk issues like terrorism and pandemics."

"The other small surprise [from the survey] for me wasterrorism," he said, adding that "I don't know if that's due togeography or their product line."

"For the risk management community to say 'I don't see myself asbeing impacted by terrorism,'" he said, is concerning.

In the case of 9/11, he noted, while there was immediate impacton the airline industry and a specific geography in New York andWashington, D.C., the event had far-reaching implications to theeconomy, politics and fuel supplies.

He noted that terrorism is by definition "a nonlinear risk--youdon't know when, where, how and what the impact will be." On apsychological level, he said, "we may tell ourselves it doesn'timpact us."

Even though that aspect of the survey was disturbing to him,another part of the survey found that terrorism topped the list ofemerging risks at 23 percent; followed by technological/e-mailrisks at 21 percent; regulatory/compliance at 16 percent; andenvironment and pollution risks at 13 percent.

"So, there is a dichotomy," Mr. Duncan said. The survey alsofound that 69 percent of the companies polled were either planningor partially implementing enterprise risk management.

"If 69 percent of accountants had a brand new philosophyemerging on accounting, that would be a blockbuster event," hesaid. "That's a quantum shift. It's great for the industry becauseERM gets risk management into the boardroom. And that can only bodewell for the profession."