LONDON, 10 July 2006 – To be the best, risk managers must understand their company culture according to delegates searching for the risk manager’s elusive ‘X factor’ at a workshop during Airmic’s recent annual conference. 

Teaming up to rank the top 10 qualities required to make a good risk manager, Aon Limited’s Tony Hills and ITV’s risk manager Graeme Lee asked over 30 Airmic delegates what they thought the risk manager’s ‘X factor’ was. Following the need to understand their company’s culture at 23%, communication was seen as the second most important quality at 21%. Experience was ranked fourth (13%) behind adopting a strategic view (17%). Interestingly perhaps for the risk management business, the ability to deal with the unexpected ranked only ninth with 2% of the votes.

Tony Hills, Business Director at Aon said: “We set out to have a bit of fun by adopting the ‘X factor’ format for our conference workshop, but there was a serious side to it. The risk managers who took part clearly rate the need to understand their company culture as an absolute prerequisite when it comes to putting together a successful risk management strategy. This also sends a strong message to the insurer and broking community who equally must be sure to fully understand the culture of the clients they deal with.”

“We were surprised that the ability to deal with the unexpected ranked quite low,” added ITV’s risk manager, Graeme Lee. “Perhaps businesses are so well risk managed these days every possible scenario is very well planned for! Technical ability also ranked at a lowly sixth place with just 6% of the vote compared to the ability to communicate at 21%. Proving that it’s not all about what you know but how you tell it.”

The full top ten results for the ‘X factor’ survey were as follows:

Notes to editor:

About Aon

Aon Corporation is a leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and management consulting, and specialty insurance underwriting. There are 46,000 employees working in Aon's 500 offices in more than 120 countries. Backed by broad resources, industry knowledge and technical expertise, Aon professionals help a wide range of clients develop effective risk management and workforce productivity solutions.

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