A select group of local business leaders joined us on 26 April 2017 for a breakfast roundtable discussion at the Beverly Hills, Umhlanga. Michael Anderson, a consulting actuary from the UK, was the guest speaker.
The topic under consideration was “managing uncertainty”, which also naturally included a focus on risk and risk management.
Some of the key themes and conclusions from the discussion were as follows.
- There is a need for risk to be on the agenda of the top executives in any organization (i.e. proper risk management starts with genuine engagement from the “C-suite”).
- It also became apparent that the traditional qualitative approach of evaluating risk, by looking at the likelihood and impact of individual events, on its own is not enough. More sophisticated analysis is now available for quantifying and exploring uncertainty and risk.
- The group was in agreement that an increasingly uncertain world is not going to become more certain any time soon. Businesses must therefore acquire the skills to manage risk and take advantage of opportunities in order to survive.
There was some good debate during the discussion and while there are no easy answers in this area, the conversation gave us all some good food for thought. This nicely complemented the good food enjoyed for breakfast!
A very special thank you to The Beverly Hills and John de Canha for the hospitality. It was appreciated by all.
About The Author: Adamastor
More posts by adamastor