Catastrophe management webinar focuses on continuity plans
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Though recent catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Japan were considered statistically improbable, the severity of their impact highlights the need for integrated enterprise risk management plans that consider the unimaginable, experts say.
In a Business Insurance webinar titled “Catastrophe Management: Taking Care of Business When Disaster Strikes”—now available on demand at BusinessInsurance.com—independent urban resiliency policy adviser Arrietta Chakos said a common failure of risk management in recent years is a lack of preparation for business disruption. Ms. Chakos urged risk managers to consider an enterprise risk management framework that promotes long-term resiliency by linking today's disaster preparation and risk mitigation with tomorrow's response and recovery efforts.
“In Chile, New Zealand and Japan, no matter how much planning went into effect, the scale of those disasters was really beyond what people had foreseen,” said Ms. Chakos. “That's part of the work that enterprise risk management will help to reduce over time,” she said, and offered guidance on the integration of business resiliency into ERM.
Among other ERM strategies discussed, Gary S. Lynch, managing director at Marsh Risk Consulting, said the first step in preparing for a disaster is mapping the supply chain to identify single points of failure, such as single-sourced parts. Because all failure points are not created equal, Mr. Lynch suggests narrowing down top suppliers by value rather than spend.
“Organizations are quickly migrating away from traditional, broad-based programs for their organization that they simply cannot execute on and are focusing in on the business priorities that align with the business value,” said Mr. Lynch.
Business Insurance Associate Editor Mike Tsikoudakis moderated the webinar. The free, 60-minute webcast can be viewed on demand at www.businessinsurance.com/ webinars.
