Anticipation of risks not enough, organizations need to build resilience: Willis CEO

The nature of traditional property and casualty risks is shifting, and people can no longer rely entirely on the purchase of insurance to mitigate them, said Joe Plumeri, chairman and CEO of Willis Group.
Plumeri spoke recently at the 2012 World Captive Forum in Miami, Florida. During his address, he noted the Miami hurricane of 1926 was the costliest disaster in U.S. history. Should an event of the same scale strike the city today, an estimated $101 billion in insured losses would occur.
The Top 5 risks on the minds of business leaders today are not easily solved by purchasing insurance, Plumari said, citing examples of loss of customers, regulatory investigations and reputational risk.
“As the risk landscape evolves and includes both natural and man-made catastrophes, organizations need to build resilience against the unpredictable,” Plumeri said. “Insurance serves as a powerful ally for organizations to tackle new risks. And in many ways, insurance is the bridge between anticipation and resilience.”