RIMScast: Mid-Year Risk Update with Morgan O’Rourke and Hilary Tuttle

Mid-Year Risk Update with Morgan O’Rourke and Hilary Tuttle

Jun 20, 2023

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.

Leaders of RIMS’s flagship publication, Risk Management Magazine, rejoin RIMScast. Morgan O’Rourke is Publications Director at RIMS and the magazine’s editor in chief and Hilary Tuttle is the managing editor.

In this first of two interviews, they discuss recent wildfire smoke and air quality and other emerging risks, risk terms that help and hinder efforts, and what they are looking for in the way of written contributions from risk managers for the magazine.

Key Takeaways:

[:01] About RIMScast.

[:27] About today’s episode: a discussion of Pride Month and LGBTQIA+ initiatives in the risk profession with a leader from the Rainbow Risk Alliance.

[:36] All about upcoming RIMS webinars, and more!

[1:07] The RIMS Canada Conference 2023 has been announced for September 11th‒14th in Ottowa! Visit RIMSCanadaConference.ca for more information.

[1:24] On September 14th, the Spencer Educational Foundation returns to New York City for its Annual Funding Their Future Gala. The event will be held at the Cipriani on 42nd Street. A link is on this episode’s notes. You can also visit SpencerEd.org.

[1:41] Head to the RIMS.org/Advocacy page to find information about The RIMS Legislative Summit, which is returning to Washington, D.C. on October 25th and 26th.

[1:55] Be on the lookout for the call for submissions for the RIMS ERM Conference, which will be held November 2nd and 3rd in Denver, Colorado! The first call for submissions was emailed in early June. Remember to check your spam box! There is a link to the web version in this episode’s notes.

[2:13] RIMS is partnering with Conrad Clark Nigeria for a RIMS CRMP Exam Prep virtual workshop Saturdays in July: July 1st, 8th, and 15th. Start your RIMS CRMP journey today! The link is in the show notes.

[2:34] Justin is rejoined today with Morgan O’Rourke and Hilary Tuttle, who are the journalistic forces behind the award-winning RIMS publication Risk Management Magazine. Morgan is the RIMS publication director and editor-in-chief of the magazine. Hilary is the managing editor of the magazine and ace reporter.

[2:54] This is the first part of a two-part interview. It’s a mid-year update with talk about the risk news of the day and what’s trending and insight for listeners who want to contribute to the magazine on how to pitch and find out what Hilary and Morgan are looking for. Justin welcomes Morgan and Hilary back to RIMScast.

[3:20] Justin introduces Morgan O’Rourke and Hilary Tuttle. The last time they were on the RIMScast was at the end of 2022 with a retrospective of the year. Justin invited them back mid-year to see how things are going in 2023 and take the risk temperature.

[4:17] Since her last visit to RIMScast, Hilary has become Managing Editor of the magazine.

[4:38] What are the trends in risk management so far in 2023? Morgan notes shootings in the headlines. He borrows a term, Polycrisis, from the Global Risk Report 2023. It’s not just all the things happening but their interactions. For instance, storm season may be complicated by inflation, supply chain issues, and lingering post-pandemic issues.

[6:01] Hilary sees more complexity to risks. The complexity comes from the different velocities of risks or factors such as the development of technology. Technology changes the velocity of risk. Replacement costs are higher for cars that are more advanced. The supply chain is more complex. Chips come from fewer places.

[7:00] Technology is making standard risks a lot more complicated and expensive. There is a more complicated picture of what it means to return to “business as usual” after the pandemic. There are more factors involved to get back to what was usual.

[7:48] Hilary doesn’t like the term “new normal.” It’s a cliché. Everyone’s “normal” is not the same. The phrase accepts a certain level of death or harm to other people as a cost of doing business. Dismissing it as normal is not respectful of others. And we’re all at a different normal. There is no normal. Morgan notes that it’s an imprecise shorthand.

[9:32] Most risk management reporting today has a technology tie-in. Technology is a core component of how we do business and how we experience risk. It’s not reinventing the wheel every time, but it’s levels of complexity each of the time.

[10:17] Does Hilary enjoy reporting over and over on cyber? She does enjoy reporting on cyber a lot of the time. It gets to be the same old thing at a point. Reading about new ransomware attacks is interesting but sometimes it’s not something she’ll cover soon.

[12:31] For days, wildfire smoke from Canada caused dangerous smoke levels on the U.S. East Coast. It was an orange haze. Many had to stay indoors. The worst-ever air quality day is now in New York. West Coasters have struggled with that for much longer periods. New York was worse and entirely unexpected. It’s hard to manage.

[15:40] Morgan feels for the employees in the next town from the wildfires. How do businesses keep their employees safe from so much smoke and sustain their business? And the fires are nowhere near contained.

[16:50] RIMS plug time! Sponsor a weekly or dedicated episode of RIMScast! Contact us at pd@rims.org. For upcoming virtual workshops visit RIMS.org/virtualworkshops to see the full calendar. On June 29th, “Optimizing Risk Management with Artificial Intelligence” will be led by Pat Saporito. A link to the workshop calendar is in the notes.

[17:48] The webinar “Large-Scale Risk: How Walmart Manages the Risks Unique to Large and Growing Companies,” will be on June 22, 2023. Scott Fenstermaker of Riskonnect will lead the session. Scott tells about the webinar featuring Chip Hargrave of Walmart. It’s going to be fantastic! Visit rims.org/webinars to sign up for webinars.

[20:59] What is a successful pitch for Risk Management Magazine? It gets back to asking what risk management can do about a thing. The answer is not that they can buy your product. Make it universal so that the audience can consider the risk they are facing. There’s no solution to fit everyone. Give broad tips on addressing risk.

[22:19] Hilary recommends not using the first-person viewpoint. Look at your experience as a jumping-off point and think about what are the connection points that are relevant to other people. The way a problem impacts your business is specific. What are the problems you have in common with other industries? Tell something of relevance.

[23:25] Think about how you would phrase your experience as guidance or a lesson for someone in a different sector. Think about takeaways. List three, five, or ten specific takeaways from your experience that would be interesting or relevant to somebody else. Start there. It’s easier to write a piece from that. Morgan says to start with three.

[24:58] Morgan says thank you to the readers of Risk Management Magazine, for reading and sharing. He’s always happy to hear your comments and feedback. He’s grateful that someone would open it and read an article. Hilary would love to hear what they could do better or have you contribute a piece. They are here for you, so reach out!

[26:01] Justin thanks Morgan O’Rourke and Hilary Tuttle for joining him on RIMScast. They thank Justin for having them.

[26:16] “Special thanks again to Morgan O’Rourke and Hilary Tuttle of Risk Management Magazine for joining me here today. They’re going to come back next week and we’re going to talk more about a very special article that Hilary wrote, covering RISKWORLD and active shooter preparedness, so I want you all to tune in and check it out!”

[26:35] Read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com and check out the blog at RiskManagementMonitor.com.

[26:44] Remember that you can sponsor a RIMScast episode to reach a global audience! Justin shares other RIMS offerings, including a transitional membership, RIMS.org, Risk Management Magazine, and the Risk Management Monitor blog! Justin thanks you for your continued support and engagement on social media channels!

Mentioned in this Episode:

RIMS Canada 2023 — Sept. 11–14 in Ottawa!

Spencer Educational Foundation — Funding Their Future Gala — Sept. 14, 2023

RIMS ERM Conference 2023 — Submit an educational session by June 30.

Contribute to Risk Management Magazine

RIMS Diversity Equity & Inclusion page

RIMS Western Regional – Oct 4-6, Vail Colorado

RIMS-CRMP Prep with Conrad Clark Nigeria – July 1, 8, 15

Upcoming Webinars:

“Large-Scale Risk: How Walmart Manages the Risks Unique to Large and Growing Companies” | Sponsored by Riskonnect | June 22, 2023

Upcoming Virtual Workshops:

“Optimizing Risk Management with Artificial Intelligence” | June 29, 2023