DALLAS—Communications and incentives are two key elements in achieving innovation from a risk management perspective, according to a panel of risk managers who gathered last week in Dallas.

Lance Ewing, vp of risk management at Harrah's Entertainment Inc. in Cordova, Tenn.; Greg Dodd, risk manager at Perot Systems Corp. in Plano, Texas; and Kyle Weddle, former regional risk manager and global risk practices leader at General Motors Corp., discussed innovation in and as it applies to risk management last week at the annual Entrepreneurial Insurance Symposium.

“The key of innovation for GM and for us in risk management was having the conversation,” Mr. Weddle said.

The nature of GM's operation and its supply chains created numerous silos and “little baskets of risk,” Mr. Weddle said. To more effectively address the exposures across the organization, risk management mapped the company's supply chains.

“We were able to expand that to the supplier community and provide a ton of data to the people who were managing our suppliers,” the former GM risk manager said. Prior to that, “communication wasn't happening in a lot of the silos.”

“I'm a big believer in enterprise risk management,” Mr. Weddle said. “The value and the innovation is in the discussion.”

Candid communication among stakeholders is essential to innovation in risk management, he said, adding, “I think enterprise risk management is a way to do that. I think it's way underleveraged right now.”

Mr. Weddle noted that Web 2.0 social networking tools facilitate those sorts of communications, and said such online applications are a “viable solution” to achieving the necessary communications across business silos.

Mr. Dodd also spoke of technology applications in risk management, but suggested incentives are sometimes needed before innovations can be realized.

He recalled that in 1998 when he appointed Marsh Inc. as Perot Systems' broker, “one of the conditions was that all members of their service team use their online task-tracking portal.” But he said, “No one on the service team was using it because no other client was using it.”

Five years later, when he appointed Palmer & Cay Inc. as Perot's broker, he faced the same situation. Five years after that, the situation was repeated when he appointed Willis HRH as Perot Systems' broker. “In 10 years there had been no change in the use of technology, even though the online task-tracking systems had improved,” Mr. Dodd said.

“Each service team eventually began using the task-tracking systems effectively,” the Perot Systems risk manager said. But in each case, it took a financial incentive: The broker would lose money if the online task-tracking system wasn't used and updated every two weeks.

“The intended users must be trained and incentivized to use the technology before they can see it as valuable,” Mr. Dodd said.

Mr. Ewing, who moderated the panel, said Harrah's also uses cash and other incentives to achieve various goals with its brokers. The company uses multiple brokers, but wants them to work together on its program. “Once a year we do a blue sky (brainstorming session) where we bring the brokers together,” Mr. Ewing said, adding that he looks for a three-year risk management strategy.

He also expects twice-a-year stewardship reports from Harrah's brokers detailing their performance in meeting objectives. While allowing that those reports force the brokers to “air all (their) dirty laundry,” Mr. Ewing told brokers in the symposium audience, “This is your chance to shine” in the reports by listing “all the great things you did.” And he recommended that brokers make the reports meaningful to the risk managers with whom they work.

Harrah's, Mr. Ewing said, is moving toward electronic policy submissions, including embedded videos of its properties in those submissions. “Wouldn't that be helpful to you?” he asked the brokers and insurers in the audience.

The annual Entrepreneurial Insurance Symposium, formerly the eInsurance Symposium, was presented by Dallas-based electronic insurance exchange MarketScout in partnership with Business Insurance, Liberty Mutual Group Inc., Microsoft Corp. and the National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research.