Risk Managers On 9/11

People who lost friends and loved ones on Sept. 11 don't need to be persuaded about the merits of risk management. Instead, they desire excellence in risk-management execution. No other event in our lifetime has been as consequential with regard to how business leaders view risk.

Karl Zimmel

Director, Risk Management Services

UniSource Energy Corp.

9/11 is the most significant event of my risk-management career, and it has made a permanent impact to risk management: 1) It has opened our minds to endless loss scenarios during risk identification; 2) It caused special insurance-policy coverage that can't be completely covered by insurers and requires government reinsurance; 3) Loss-control efforts are significant, starting with barriers outside of various facilities and extending to more sophisticated measures; 4) Security is endless from airports to IT systems.

One could argue several industries have developed to counter the threat of terrorism. It's a sad sign of the times when terrorism prevention is one of the only industries creating jobs.

Tim East

Director, Corporate Risk Management

The Walt Disney Co.

First, 9/11 has made all of us more aware of the need to consider risks and exposures we've never considered before—to evaluate risk more broadly and to include the cascade effect of multiple events occurring at the same time.

Second, the resulting coverage and form dispute following 9/11 made it clear that risk managers, brokers and insurers need to get the terms, language and conditions communicated clearly and acknowledged by all parties. We can never wait for months after a policy is bound to work these out.

Dan Kugler

Assistant Treasurer, Risk Management, Snap-on Inc.

 From a risk-manager's perspective, the events of 9/11 made me expand my view of "what can happen" and the resulting consequences—highlighting the need to expand our view of potential loss and the need to fully support and work closely with local officials in coordination of catastrophic losses.  

Sarah Perry

Risk Manager

City of Columbia, Missouri

My sense is coverage issues which arose from the Sept. 11 losses have prompted insurance providers to more carefully spell out coverage inclusions and exclusions—requiring risk managers to pay better attention to policy language.

While the events of Sept. 11 were horrific, I believe it has positively affected the world of risk management by raising the attention of people to the possibilities of loss and the need to have management plans in place should a loss of any magnitude occur. This heightened attention has given risk managers the chance to step forward with expertise in property coverages, preventions programs and mitigation plans.

As a risk manager, one of the biggest changes I experienced following 9/11 was also the willingness of public entities (cities, counties, schools), businesses and not-for-profit organizations to come together to plan a community-wide emergency response—instead of each organization looking at how to handle their own challenges.