As I arrived today at this year's RIMS conference in San Diego, my thoughts drifted back to the first time I attended this convention of corporate insurance buyers in the late 1980s, when risk managers had a fairly thankless job. Man, how times have changed, as NU's exclusive coverage of the annual “Risk Management Compensation Survey” by Logic Associates reveals.

In the old days, risk managers never received a call congratulating them because no property had burned down that day, no worker had been injured, and no one had sued. The only time they got a dreaded call from above was when something went wrong. The conversation was short and far from sweet.

How in the world did we let something like this happen? some corporate big would demand, adding: What are we doing to make sure it doesnt happen again? And we had better be insured!

Today, the dynamic has changed dramatically. Certainly, risk managers still get called on the carpet when a bad loss occurs. But the conversation these days is far more likely to be initiated by the risk managernot to deliver bad news, but to announce success in lowering the cost of risk, or to propose innovative loss control and alternative risk-transfer solutions.

As a result, risk managers are being recognized where it countson their personal bottom lineswith pay on the rise.

Indeed, the most recent salary survey by Logic Associates–based for the sixth-consecutive year on a sampling of over 1,300 of NUs risk manager subscribers– reveals that on average, salaries were up 6.6 percent last year to $187,215. Thats quite an improvement over the 2006 gain of 4.8 percent, and more than double the 3.2 percent average raise in 2005.

Logic President Bill Perry makes it clear in this weeks NU cover story, Risk Managers Are Big-Money Players, that the numbers are no fluke. He points out that by taking on added responsibilities and being more proactive, they are drawing positive attention from senior management, and being rewarded accordingly. (Click here for the full cover story and survey results.)

Its very gratifying to see the third leg of our readership base (along with insurance carriers and intermediaries) step up the way risk managers have, especially with their recent forays into enterprise risk management.

There are skeptics who insist ERM is just another empty buzzword; that risk managers are doing what they have always done and always will dobasically buy insurance and manage claims.

These cynics contend that anyone boasting the exalted title of Chief Risk Officer is kidding themselves (and their employers) if they think theyre doing anything differentlylet alone anything betterthan their predecessors.

I beg to differ, if only because more and more risk managers are taking their firms into the ART markets, most never to return– much to the chagrin of traditional insurance carriers, who are left to battle over a shrinking premium pie, further fueling an already accelerating soft market.

The challenge facing risk managers now, as Mr. Perry wisely points out, is not to fall back into bad habits. As easy as it may be to simply accept the lowest bid in a down market–especially with the pressure to cut budgets in a struggling economy–risk managers must resist the temptation to revert to being just an insurance buyer.

Risk managers have come too far to take the easy way out. Never again should they trust their fate to the cyclical insurance market, or delegate their responsibilities to their broker. The biggest risk they must manage is that of complacency.

What do you folks think?