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S O L U T I O N S
ILLUSTRATIONS BY LARISSA HOFFApril 20, 2020
Editedby
RebeccaPentyand
David Rocksonlya company’sbalancesheetbutalsohow
muchmoneywouldbelostif, say,thepartsfac-
toryin Turkeyclosedfora week.Allthiswhile
answeringtothegovernmentregulatorsand
investorswhoriskmanagerssayareinquiring
aboutpreparationsforglobalcatastrophes.The
jobis aboutmanaging“warsyoudidn’tstart,
whichwillrequireimmenseresourcestowin,
withdomino-likeconsequencesthatcontaina
wholelistofpotentialsubcrises,”saysJonathan
Bernstein,whorunsa crisismanagementfirm.
Whiletheglobalspreadofthenewcorona-
virus has thrust risk management into theThe pandemic spurs boards to seek experts
in crisis planning and oversightWanted:
More Risk
Managers
Twentyyearsago,corporateriskmanagers
had near-zero publicvisibility.Most were
back-office staffers who focused on securing
insurance for environmental and real estate
problems (tornadoes, fires, earthquakes, facil-
ities breaches). Young people didn’t aspire to
be risk managers: There were just a dozen
small academic programs in the U.S. focused
on the career. The pandemic has catapulted
the field into prominence almost overnight.
“Risk management now has boards’ atten-
tion and has been given a seat at the table
for input and consideration,” says Al Marcella,
president of Business Automation Consultants
LLC, a St. Louis-based security assessment
firm. Boards are quickly creating risk commit-
tees focused on crisis planning and remote
work data privacy—and they want a chief risk
officer on speed dial.
The role is complex and demands a wide
range ofskills.Chiefriskofficersneedthe
analytical might to evaluate everything from
supply chains to staffing; the ability to main-
tain many relationships (to law firms, insurance
brokers, industry peers); the power of persua-
sion to sway fellow executives; the communi-
cation savvy to handle employees and media in
a crisis; and financial literacy to understand not