Thabile Nyaba, the president of IRMSA welcomed all the delegates attending the 2022 Institution of Risk Management South Africa’s conference that took place at the Wanderers Club, Johannesburg over the two days 27 & 28 September.
In her opening address she said: “There has never been a more exciting time to be a risk manager than now, because the future that we have always predicted is happening now.” “Our fraternity is transforming immensely; we have moved from being ‘at the back of the office’ to being at the forefront of our organisations. We are the ones that tell our organisations what lies ahead; we help them prepare for what could potentially be coming and help them navigate through materialisation of what we have been warning them about; we accelerate them out of disruption and ultimately launch them into the new reality. We are at the forefront of building resilience muscles for our organisations. We are the forerunners that bring, hindsight, foresight, and insight.” She followed that by posing the question, “Should we really still be called risk managers, or should we now be called risk leaders?”
The following two days were broken into plenary sessions and break away streams which saw a variety of speakers and panel discussions, tackling the following topics: Risk management benefits of Ubuntu, Cyber risk, The future of South Africa, Ethical leadership, Upping our corporate game, ESG, Risk management as a career of the future, Resilience, Strategy, Climate risk, Private & Public Sector Partnerships, Where we are now since the release of the 2022 IRMSA risk report, SMMEs, Risk appetite and tolerance, The state of the global insurance market and lastly, How to unleash our greatness.
The opening keynote speaker Prof. Thuli Madonsela tackling the topic of risk management benefits of Ubuntu. She said that: “leaders in this field need to think about levelling up through Ubuntu based leadership as a guardrail for risk management. What I have learnt throughout my life is that people are at the centre.” She later called on the community to consider embracing Ubuntu as the anchor of risk management.
On the topic of Risk Management & Justice in a troubled environment, Prof. Bonang Mohale highlighted the important issue of ethical and bold leadership and turned around the narrative that Africa is poor, when it is just poorly managed. He said: “The day we wake up and realise that we need to choose people that are wholesome, of integrity and can give us ethical leadership, transparency and accountability, then and only then can we say Africa’s not a poor continent, just poorly managed.”
Shivan Hutton, Managing Director and Head of Marsh Specialty Africa addressed the topic of Climate and sustainability imperatives. He said that for today’s leaders, maintaining day-to-day operations while making the transition to more sustainable processes will prove critical to remaining profitable. Keeping up with consumer expectations, shareholder expectations, public expectations and staying ahead of regulatory changes, businesses need to be very proactive in their risk management programmes to mitigate against climate change risks, sustainability in general, protect their assets and invest in the future of the company and the planet at large.
Doris Viljoen, Director of: Institute for Futures Research Stellenbosch Business School, took us through some of the existing visions and goals for Africa 2030 and compared them with what is currently happening, and looked at how we are doing in terms of realising the 2030 vision.
OWLS™ Insurance Software
Proud providers to insurance companies, UMA’s,
administrators, intermediaries and financial services companies.
Sithembiso Ngwenya: Group Chief Audit and Risk Officer, ACSA, speaking around why we need risk governance, said: “It goes without saying that if you want to have a successful business you need to have properly articulated strategic KPI’s. Things that are clearly formulated to make sure that everybody within your entity rallies towards achieving whatever KPIs you put in place. It, therefore, goes without saying that you need to do a thorough risk assessment to ensure that you look at the pitfalls that might occur if you do not meet your KPIs.”
Dr Mpho Modisane, Group Manager, Risk Management: ACSA spoke on the topic of Innovation & creativity as a fundamental leadership competency and shared high-level tips on how to formalise the innovation and creativity in your organisation. She spoke about the need for a structured and systematic process to enable a conduit for innovation and creativity while at the same time safeguarding your organisation from undesirable results.
How do we hold leaders accountable for their performance? Boitumelo Mabotja, IRMSA Internal Control Manager, Limpopo Gambling Board, unpacked the answer to this question and helped delegates understand the difference between good leadership and bad leadership and the importance of accountability as a leader and having performance management system in place for the Board, its subcommittees, and the CEO.
Alan Mukoki, Chief Executive Officer: SA Chamber of Commerce speaking on the topic of Private / Public sector partnerships stated: “How can we make SA successful if we do not build and adopt the idea of a mediocracy, that is the first risk that we need to deal with in the context of what we are doing in South Africa. Otherwise, there is no point in bringing the public and private sector together if we do not know the first thing that we need to discuss.”
Speaking on the topic of Risk appetite and tolerance, Vanessa Thurlwell Senior Risk Consultant: Mondial Consultants, explained to delegates that the setting and implementation of Risk Appetite and Tolerance need not be a daunting and complex task. She said that the most important consideration is that it is fit for purpose for the organisation and adds the value that is expected.
Tap van den Berg, group head, enterprise risk management, spoke about linking strategy and risk management from an African perspective. Ukraine Russia war and China’s persistent drive to contain COVID-19 through lockdowns, is disruptive for global trade, specifically disrupting global supply chains. Africa is directly impacted by these developments and as risk professionals, it is essential to ensure that Strategy and Risk Management is fully integrated, to ensure that entities create, preserve, and realise value for all stakeholders in uncertain times like these.
Lara Wild of Marsh, when commenting on the state of the Global insurance market and high cost of premiums said: “It is important for risk managers to partner with their insurance company so that they can walk the journey with the client. Some clients will move to a different insurer because they are going to save R10, sometimes R10 is critical to a business, the point is if you take a more long-term view and you can walk the journey with them, and the insurer gets to know the business and steps you have taken to mitigate risk within your business, it is an easier conversation. In the hard market where risks are not being managed, some insurers are opting to just walk away, not even giving a high premium option. So, it is important to partner with your intermediary and to partner with your insurer and take a longer-term view.”