“These don’t apply to my business.” We had just presented a client with a proven list of 75 risk factors that can impact a construction company’s ability to make a profit. He circled 20 and said the rest were of no consequence. If we hadn’t previously run a number of construction companies and closely observed hundreds more, his words may have cast doubt. But we knew better. Some risk factors are certainly less important than others, but they all can play a roll in causing business failure; even seemingly unimportant risk factors can interact with one another to have a large impact. With respect to business, a risk factor is defined as an action, condition or event that can cause loss or harm performance and profitability objectives. Risk factors vary by industry. For example, smoking is a risk factor in the medical world, specifically related to the health of an individual. It does not apply to a construction business. Likewise, failing to have a job cost system in place is a risk factor related to a construction business, but certainly is not a risk to an individual. Risk factors are also different across businesses. A risk factor related to overstocking perishables in a restaurant due to poor inventory control does not apply to construction. Poor humidity control is a risk factor in a flower shop but not in a restaurant. As you can imagine, there are many different types of risk factors and for the most part they are specific to an industry. Some are really important because the harm they can cause is great. Others are of lesser importance because the harm they can cause is not so great, thus having a smaller impact. To actually determine the impact a risk factor can have (its importance), takes years of case study. But suffice it to say, importance varies. What also varies is a contractor’s perception of the importance of various risk factors. Interestingly, the risk factors that a contractor usually thinks are important are the ones which it has experienced. While those the contractor thinks are unimportant are the ones it has yet to experience, and some of those can actually be very important. Focus on Expertise Now a case in point: The particular contractor mentioned at the beginning of this article was a General Contractor (the word “was” is telling). One of the risk factors he determined was of no consequence was taking on new types of work without prior experience. Another was estimating without historical data. In the months to come, this contractor decided that it could make more money by doing the rough carpentry work (framing) of buildings by itself rather than using subcontractors. In California, there are separate companies that do framing and that is all they do. It is very competitive and the cost is simply driven by how fast carpenters can put lumber in place. This GC proceeded to bid three large school projects. Now it had done schools before, but never the framing. We personally advised against the approach indicating that the estimating staff did not have experience bidding framing work, that the estimating staff did not have any historical information on hand to rely upon, that the personnel were not in place to do the framing, and that the company had no prior experience doing the work. Well, this particular contractor looked at themselves as a risk taker. Indeed they were. The net result was as follows: This particular GC was in business for over seven years and had been quite successful. However, GCs work on very tight margins. The contractor could ill afford to lose large money on the framing, but they did, and it cost them their business. That was all based upon risk factors that the contractor did not consider of importance. Contract Review Let’s look at another case in point: A contractor performed steady work in a niche market and historically made good money, however it didn’t have a contract review procedure in place. In fact, this contractor had signed a contract without having reviewed it completely and was unaware of the insurance requirements. One of the requirements was for $5MM of pollution coverage, but the contractor only had $1MM in place. The contract was for repair of 450 balconies on a 40-story apartment complex. It had done this type of work on large structures before, but never for a building that did not have air conditioning. During the summer months it became unusually hot while work was underway and many of the 450 residents had to keep their windows open because of the stifling heat, even while the contractor was chipping and grinding out the old concrete that needed repair. Concrete dust invariably drifted into some of the apartments. Simultaneously, the owner had given notice of eviction to a lawyer. To get back at the owner, he banded a bunch of the residents of the apartments together convincing them of great rewards, and proceeded to file a lawsuit against the owner for allowing cancer causing silica dust to harm the health of all of the residents. Since a lot of the residents were old, having little funds, and had little to do with their time, they had nothing to do but listen to an evicted attorney. Once the thought of cancer causing dust was put in their minds, even the invisible bothered them. During that time, one of the residents who had chronic respiratory problems was hospitalized even though work was not being performed at the time near her apartment. This just fueled the claim that all the residents were being exposed to a major health hazard, even though open windows were being covered with a filter cloth. Unfortunately, the court approved the suit as a class action with all 450 residents represented. The owner in turn tendered the suit to the contractor only to find out that the contractor did not have $5MM of pollution coverage in place as called for in the contract.... Read More
Today I met an individual who asked what I did for a living. I was somewhat distracted and mumbled the word “risk management.” As I regained my focus this gentleman said “Oh, you’re a risk manager. I’ve had trouble with my Workers’ Compensation…” and he began to talk about insurance. This was a prime example of the perception surrounding the terms “risk management” and “risk manager,” and how they’ve been equated solely to insurance coverage and insurance professionals in the past. I’ve witnessed this misrepresentation of the terms so many times that I felt not just inspired, but a public obligation, to write this article and help clear the confusion with the terminology that began long ago. PASSING THE SMELL TEST In the early 1960’s, two professors, Robert Mehr and Bob Hedges, developed the concept of Enterprise Risk Management. These two could easily be called the Godfathers of Risk Management. They published the first text to fully address the subject of business risk, “Risk Management in the Business Enterprise.” The book introduced how risk management of an entire business could maximize efficiency, which would result in greater productivity. The basic premise was that all business risks should be managed, not simply those that could be “insured.” Suffice it to say that over time, the term “risk management” began to take on a more limited meaning, referring just to insurable risks (for a slightly more elaborate outline see history of enterprise risk management). Now, some 45 years later, many large public firms are finally returning to the original roots of risk management. The Risk Managers of these firms manage the risk exposures of the entire business, not just those risks that are insurable. Mehr and Hedges would be very happy about this if they were here with us today. And, I might add, this helps put my mind at ease as well. You see, having been heavily involved in construction for much of my lifetime and having witnessed many different construction business failures, it became evident to me that the causes for each failure all boiled down to risk. However, it never seemed to make sense that insurance brokers and agents called themselves risk managers, especially since they only provided a form of management that addressed insurable risk. It just never sat right with me. First of all, they really didn’t address anywhere close to all of the business risks that exist. Second, out of all the business failures I had witnessed, none were the result of having too little insurance or poor loss control procedures. When I finally came to understand how risk management evolved over the years it was somewhat of an awakening. THE ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT PROCESS Robert Mehr and Bob Hedges came up with the steps for the risk management process, and the basic form is still in practice to this day: As originally intended, risk management would encompass management of the entire business enterprise; hence, the field became known as Enterprise Risk Management (ERM for short). ERM requires examination of all risks that an organization faces and applies directly to four distinct types of risk: Operational Risk, Financial Risk, Strategic Risk, and Hazard Risk. For the most part, only hazard risks are insurable. Thus, insurance brokers should have called themselves hazard risk managers instead of just “risk managers.” Now, with the reemergence of ERM, traditional insurance-based “risk managers” are being pushed into a wider arena of risk management, one that incorporates all other areas of business risk, many new forms of risk analysis, and a wider array of risk control mechanisms. The primary challenge of expanding risk management across the enterprise is that, because it involves so many different aspects of an organization’s operations, traditional insurance-based risk managers (who focus only on hazard risk) are simply not qualified as enterprise risk managers. They simply don’t have the experience or expertise necessary to have a firm grasp of all aspects of a business, and there are already signs they are losing their hold on the “risk manager” title. In fact, the fastest growing position in the business world today is that of Chief Risk Officer (CRO). As ERM continues to filter down from public companies to smaller and smaller private companies, you can expect a CRO type individual to become part of every management team. In order for risk managers to evolve from insurance-minded professionals to ones who understand the risks of an entire business enterprise, they will have to learn the language and the approach of each business area, either alone or as a team. If they are to act as a team, the team leader will need to have a basic understanding of all the steps involved in the entire process of risk management and the methodology used in each business area. Clearly, traditional risk managers will need to obtain additional skills to be involved with enterprise risk management. TYPES OF RISK MANAGERS There is no doubt Enterprise Risk Management is making its way from large public firms to firms in the private arena. It is being dictated by credit providers of large public firms as a result of Sarbanes-Oxley and, given the current credit environment, is commonly expected of private firms too. It may not be long until ERM becomes an expected and necessary way for all companies to operate. Since risk management has expanded to cover risk across the entire enterprise, one of the largest challenges has been finding individuals capable of understanding and managing such risk. Since insurance agents or brokers who only provide insurance advice to their clients do not fit the bill, corporate decision makers only have a couple options: Salaried employees who can learn to manage a wider scope of risk for their company than traditional risk managers (often chief financial officers or treasurers); and Independent consultants who provide comprehensive Enterprise Risk Management services. Individuals who perform at this level are called CRO’s. They are in very high demand today and typically are drawing salaries even higher than... Read More
