IRMSA Conference 2011: This Turbulent World - What’s Next?
Published |
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2012
Fri
27
Jan
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By Michael E. Stoker
Insurance Gateway® a division of Stoker Risk and ICT (Pty) Ltd
www.insurancegateway.co.za
Delegates who gathered in their hundreds at the 2011 Institute of Risk Management South Africa’s Annual Conference held late last year on 23 and 24 November 2011, at the Monte Casino in Fourways, Johannesburg, were treated to a veritable feast of risk management input of the highest order along the lines of the conference theme, “This Turbulent World-What’s Next?”
On the opening morning, Sheralee Morland, IRMSA Vice President welcomed the delegates and handed over to Michael Jackson who set the stage for the conference and provided the opening and keynote address – “The Challenge of change”. This dynamic and motivational keynote presentation encompassed a hands-on view of the global business world, beginning with an initial look back over past business/consumer/lifestyle trends and culminated in ways to deal with all the resultant pressures and changing dynamics of today's key business issues.
Anton van Wyk a Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers whose presentation was titled “Risking It – Back from the Doldrums” spoke about the impact of business failures and consequent governance initiatives which will forever change the corporate world and this was followed by Oliver Houghton, Associate Director KPMG, whose talk titled “What is your Risk Bearing Capacity?” looked at where the risk appetite was during the global financial crisis and how Risk Managers and organisations have responded since the crisis?
Dr Adrian Saville the well-known economic commentator and Chief Investment Officer of Canon Asset
Managers provided a stimulating talk titled “Global Drivers in a World of Dinosaurs, Dragons, Elephants, Tigers, Civets & Lions” in which he looked at the turbulent investment setting of 2011, what the current market mood is, how likely this is to play itself out in the foreseeable future and how the shifts in sentiment translate into investment opportunity.
This was followed by “An update on trends in SA’s political-economy” by JP Landman, a Political and Trend Analyst who spoke on how the trends in South Africa’s political-economy affects the growth, investment and social development of the country.
Adrian Ladbury from Commercial Risk Europe, whose attendance was sponsored by the Cruywagen-IRMSA Risk Foundation, presented “Risk strategies for a brave new world” during which he revealed the findings of their latest research concerning the pace of recent economic, political and social change driven by the financial upheaval of the global economic crisis and how the search for new markets and means of production at ever-lower costs has delivered a wholly new risk landscape for companies the world over, particularly those with international operations.
After an already busy day, Clem Sunter the famous Independent Scenario Planner, concluded the proceedings of the first day of the conference with an explanation of the scenario methodology as Clem Sunter and Chantal Illbury currently use it and provided the latest global scenarios and the possibilities for South Africa within the global context, in his talk entitled “The World and South Africa Beyond 2011: Scenarios, Flags and Probabilities”.
The second day of the conference was equally rewarding. The opening presentation was delivered by Keith Coats of Tomorrow Today who spoke about how to take advantage of the turbulent years that lie ahead and the measures needed to prepare companies for the in-evitable upturn, in his presentation titled “After Shock – What happens after what comes next?”
This was followed by political analyst and newspaper columnist Justice Malala who in his presentation titled “The Unfolding Political Landscape in South Africa” took delegates on a journey through the South African political landscape as it has unfolded, touching on phenomena like the ANC’s alliance with the SA Communist Party and Cosatu and the emergence of political players such as Julius Malema and others, addressing the niggling questions about the future of South Africa and where economic policy is headed.
Dave Shackleton the CEO of Sustainable Infrastructure Solutions spoke about Systems Theory in context of market crashes, global economic shocks, revolutions and bubbles and what it is that we are missing that allows such massive disruptions to remain in our blind spots for so long, that we are consistently surprised when they inevitably happen, in his presentation entitled “Systemic Vision”. Systems Theory can offer insights into identifying incipient risk and avoiding nasty surprises.
Matthew Lester from Rhodes University looked at how the economic problems in the United States and Europe are affecting South Africa, how big the delivery challenge for South Africa is, whether National Health Insurance can ever be feasible, the future trends for Company Tax, Personal Tax, VAT and Carbon Emission Taxes, in the context of the National Budget as it stands post the medium term Budget Framework speech in October 2011, and what this means for the daily lifestyle of the new South African, in his most entertaining presentation “Hey Comrade, where’s my Country?”
The final presentation on the second day of the conference, which was sponsored by Aon, titled ‘Iceberg! What Iceberg?” was delivered by Derek Warby, Director of Business Development for Aon Africa and the Middle East and he provided stimulating input on learning to think the unthinkable when managing risk, in the context of managing physical risk (People, Environment, Assets and Reputation), in a world that is becoming increasingly difficult to define and to assess.
After a closing word from IRMSA President, Hennie Thessner, Ventriloquist Conrad Koch provided some light relief with his most entertaining but thought provoking show, “Another view on the Headline News - So what now?”
The well supported Exhibition Hall provided delegates with the opportunity to engage one on one with suppliers from a broad spectrum of Risk Management services.
Leaving delegates with valuable input and much to consider, the 2011 IRMSA Conference can certainly be said to have been one of their best conferences yet, as the level and standard of input simply continues to increase. Well done IRMSA!
Other than in respect of the professional speakers most of the presentations are available for download from IRMSA’s website at www.irmsa.org.za
An interesting and differentiating aspect of the IRMSA Annual Conference is that unlike many of the Industry conferences on the annual insurance and financial services conference calendar, the IRMSA conference has broad appeal to service providers and corporate risk management consumers, which puts a unique slant on the net-working benefits of attending the conference.
I would highly recommend that independent risk managers, corporate intermediaries, members of the legal and compliance fraternity and senior management from the medium to large Corporate and Public enterprises in South Africa who missed last year’s conference, seriously consider getting this year’s one, which will be held on 22 and 23 November 2012, on their personal radar.
Outside of the Annual Conference IRMSA host several events throughout the year and the dates for this year’s events are available from their website. More specific information for each event is published nearer the time by IRMSA and on Insurance Gateway®.
Source: Insurance Gateway®
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