Risk Updates

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I was chatting with a friend of mine earlier in the week; I’ll call him “Alan”. Alan is not a small man, he is; 6’9”, 278 pounds; Alan is a former NFL lineman. Let’s just say that you notice him when he walks into a room. While talking to Alan he mentioned to me that when he was growing up; around the 8th or 9th grade; that his school work and his grades all of sudden began to get worse. (Now I know what you may be thinking…He’s a 6’4”, 14 year old “jock”; how smart does he have to be to play in the NFL?) However, not only were his grades suffering, his athletic ability was also beginning to suffer significantly. Alan said that his hand/eye coordination became almost non-existent. He had an impossible time catching a ball, hitting a ball or even making a lay-up on the basketball court. After several months Alan’s parents took him to the eye doctor. After an extensive eye exam, the optometrist explained that during his very rapid growth spurt, that his eyeballs had also experienced a similar rapidity in growth and had become elongated because of it. 

Alan was fitted with glasses and corrective lenses and…as they say….the rest is history. He graduated with honors from high school and college and had a career in the NFL.

Alan mentioned how fortunate he was that his parents had the vision (no pun intended) to seek the guidance and help from trained specialists to identify and then help correct the issue. He said; I shudder to think what would have become of me had my grades continued to suffer and I struggled at times to put one foot in front of the other without falling down. The only place for a 6’9” 300 pound clumsy dunce is in the circus; cleaning up after the animals.

As I was listening to Alan, I couldn’t help but think about how his story parallels, in many ways, the Risk Management struggles with many organizations. Because of rapid growth or a corporate vision focused on production, quality, profits or revenue growth (all of which are 100% necessities), like Alan; their Risk Management eyeballs can become elongated and they don’t see everything clearly. Or, perhaps like my parents who are in their mid-90’s; both of them have needed to have cataract surgery because their vision became cloudy. Some organizations may have their Risk Management eyes lose focus and go dim because of complacency. 

A pro-active Risk Management partner helps organizations clearly see all of their constantly evolving risks. Not simply their “Hazard” Risks such as: fire, products, building coverage, employee safety, etc. but also their “Strategic, Operational, and Financial” Risk. Items such as; Reputation, Competition, Patents, Supply Chain, Regulatory Compliance, Product Recall, Mergers & Acquisitions, Foreign Exchange, Commodity Pricing, and many, many other risks that can cripple an organization.

If your Risk Management eyes have lost their focus because they have become elongated or cloudy and you would like to see more clearly please give me a call. We will help identify potential areas of concern and provide a clear path to move forward on. After all, when an issue arises….no successful organization wants to end up in a circus due to a lack of vision.

Click on the link below for the following articles in this Edition

• M&A Insurance – is it really Necessary?
• Should Employers Allow Concealed Weapon Permit Holders to Carry Guns at Work?
• California Supreme Court Embraces Employee-Friendly Formula for Calculating OT Pay
• Formal Job Training is Crucial to Worker Safety
• Southern California Car Wash Mogul Cited for Cheating 700 Workers and Destroying Evidence
• https://www.iwpubs.com/Subscriber/sd.asp?l=59890568&p=9&_s=E3C77861
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