You thought the MTV Music Awards and the Oscars were surrounded by suspense? You have seen nothing yet. It's that time of year again when our thoughts turn to special things. I speak, of course, not of presents, mistletoe, tinsel, and family gatherings near the hearth. No, instead, I speak of the succession of excellent books that have appeared over the past year, books that have illuminated key themes of risk management and which have held us (or will hold us) in rapt attention.
Okay, so I exaggerate slightly. Nevertheless, let us take a minute to stroll down the memories of recent books to round out your hands-on risk management insights. Are you ready to curl up with a good risk management book? Well, okay, don't answer just yet. Many have waited long for this list, so we must tarry no longer before disclosing … the top 10 risk management books of the past year:
Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why, by Laurence Gonzales, W.W. Norton, New York. Risk management has both a corporate and a personal context. This book addresses the latter. When confronted by life-threatening situations, 90 percent of people freeze or panic. How do the remaining 10 percent cope with the risk in order to survive and even thrive? Gonzales examines the biological and psychological reasons that people risk their lives, and why some do it more successfully than others. Those who successfully surmount risk possess specific traits, Gonzales argues. Read and heed his 12 rules of survival, and challenge yourself to apply them to the discipline of organizational risk management.
Front Desk Security & Safety, by Betty A. Kildow, Amacom. The subtitle says it all: An On-the Job Guide to Handling Emergencies, Threats, and Unexpected Situations. Those responsible for the safety and well being of the people in an organization must be prepared to face extraordinary challenges. Often, these people are at the bottom of the pay totem pole but, nevertheless, have an enormous impact on managing risks. From medical emergencies to natural disasters, workplace violence, and emerging terrorism threats, front desk employees may well be your first line of defense against a spectrum of risky situations. Kildow, a business continuity specialist, focuses on risk prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. Whether or not your front desk receptionist reports to the risk manager, the risk manager should make sure that this book is read and heeded.
Spreading the Risks: Insuring the American Experience, by John Bogardus, with Robert Moore, PMR Communications. This book, co-authored by the former chairman of Alexander & Alexander, draws on vast experience to explore the role of major 20th century insurance brokers. We hear so much these days about the evils of contingent commissions and broker consolidations that a historical perspective is useful. The authors offer invaluable insights on the insurance brokerage industry, perhaps more history than you might ever care to learn. This book by a former industry insider is not an expos? that dishes dirt, but rather an astute chronicle of an industry on which risk managers rely so much to do their jobs.
Instant Messaging Rules: A Business Guide to Managing Policies, Security, and Legal Issues for Safe IM Communication, by Nancy Flynn, 2004, Amacom, New York. Instant messaging, known as IM, emerged in the cyber world of chat rooms and message boards. Now it has crept into the workplace, for good or ill, with all the attendant risks inherent in e-mail. Corporate firewalls offer little or no protection against IM problems. Like it or not, IM is now a risk management issue front and center. Employees can use IM to pass along trade secrets or to engage in sexual harassment. Flynn, author of a comparable book on e-mail issues, offers 32 examples of best practices to keep you and your company out of court.
Internal Bleeding: The Truth Behind America's Terrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes, by Robert Wachter, M.D., and Kaveh Shojania, M.D., Rugged Land Press, New York. Some estimate that, each year, doctors and hospitals kill close to 100,000 Americans by mistake. These mishaps include operating on the wrong patients or limbs, prescribing the wrong drugs, or leaving sponges inside body cavities before closing up. This book, written not by consumerist muckrakers but by two doctors and medical school professors, examines the risks that lie within the realm of today's high-tech medicine. It offers an insider's glimpse of how doctors really think, feel, and operate. It closes with suggestions on what doctors, hospitals, and CEOs can do to reform a flawed health care system.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place, by Aron Ralston, Atria Books. If your right arm were stuck between a rock and a hard place, would you be willing to saw off your own limb to free yourself? Bravery and stupidity sometimes are separated by a thin boundary. In his recent book, outdoorsman Ralston describes his harrowing trek in the Utah Moab desert. Hiking solo, he caught his left arm under a falling boulder and languished for four days in an isolated crevasse, before sawing off his arm with a makeshift tool. Ralston was an experienced trekker but was addicted to pushing the survival envelope. In this case, he carried with him a digital camera and a compact disc player, but no cell phone. Perhaps, the area in which he was hiking was so remote that no cell phone would have helped him.
More crucially, he neglected to tell anyone where he was going or when he would return. Had he done so, a rescue team might have found Ralston long before he did his grim self-amputation. This highly personal account of one man's risk/reward tradeoff underscores the fact that it often is the low-tech stuff, rather than high-tech gadgets, that saves us from our own calamities.
The Disaster Recovery Handbook, by Michael Wallace and Lawrence Webber, Amacom, New York. Risk managers need to be ready to respond to any and every type of unplanned occurrence. These might include fires, electrical outages, computer worms and viruses, and even terrorism. This encyclopedic work gives risk managers the processes and techniques to develop disaster recovery plans and protect their organizations in the event of extraordinary calamities. In 416 pages, the authors explain how to set up an emergency operation center, document recovery procedures, ensure employee safety, and protect vital material resources. Get this book and read it now because, by the time disaster strikes, it will be too late.
The Additional Insured Book (Fifth Edition), by Donald Malecki, Pete Ligeros, and Jack Gibson, International Risk Management Institute. Although this book primarily is aimed at agents and brokers, risk managers should read it. In many cases, risk managers may be forgoing opportunities to tap into another party's insurance coverage via additional insured status. In other situations, a risk manager may stand in peril of having coverage depleted due to claims of additional insured status by others. Sometimes, the risk manager wants the status and at other times he may not. Structuring coverage so as to have one's cake and eat it too is an art form. IRMI has published perhaps the definitive treatise on the topic that will help risk managers navigate through the thicket.
Stop the Presses: The Litigation PR Desk Reference, by Richard S. Levick and Larry Smith, Levick Strategic Communications. This is a handy little book that you may be able to get for free (don't quote me) from this public relation consulting firm in the Washington, D.C., area. If you ever have a corporate meltdown that challenges your company's brand identity, reputation, or good name, you definitely need this small, yet practical, book. It packs a powerful punch in a tiny package.
Fair, Square, & Legal: Safe Hiring, Managing, & Firing Practices to Keep You & Your Company Out of Court, by Donald H. Weiss, Amacom. Got a problem with employment practice claims or litigation? Take two pages from this book and call me in the morning. In today's litigious atmosphere, employees do not hesitate to sue when they think their rights have been violated. Risk managers cannot afford to be ignorant of what is legal and illegal in the workplace. Employment law is intricate and, at times, confusing. Although risk managers may have the assistance of personnel or human resource managers, this book should be a standard on any risk manager's bookshelf as a preventive blueprint to thwart employment-related claims.
Part of being a professional means keeping current on trends within your field. That includes reading certain key periodicals. It also includes cracking the books, and not just when a course requires it. Make daily reading a feature of your personal research and development program. If you read just 10 pages per day, you can knock out a book every month or so. Make one of your New Year's resolutions to read regularly to hone your knowledge, spur your thinking, and apply new ideas that help you manage risks better, faster, or cheaper.
Kevin Quinley is senior vice president of Medmarc Insurance Group in Chantilly, Va. Reach him at kquinley@kevinquinley.com or www.kevinquinley.com.
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