Per Kühn is risk and compliance manager for the Danish company B&K Vibro, which produces safety and condition monitoring systems for rotating machinery, and a member of DARIM. Here is his diary for the first session of the 2014-2015 FERMALloyd’s professional development programme which took place on 24 and 25 April at Lloyd’s.

Day One

The main purpose of the first day of the FERMA/Lloyd’s professional development programme was to provide an overview of
the Lloyd Insurance market. For me the subject seemed fairly complex, most likely because I had only a little experience with the insurance market. I was relieved when I found the presentations of the insurance market well-structured and wellpresented and they turned out to bring me a valuable understanding that allowed me to benefit from the second day of the programme.

Day one ended with a product speed dating hosted by Kiln, part of Tokio Marine Kiln Group. It was organised as five sessions of about 10 minutes each, each with a presentation, questions and answers on a specific topic. Besides getting some heads-up on the specific topics, my takeaway was “Never take ‘no’ for an answer when asking for insurance cover”.

Day two
Whereas the first day was heavy on PowerPoint slides, the second day focussed much more on the work undertaken by insurance underwriters and insurance brokers. Personal sessions with brokers and underwriters took place “on the floor and/or in the box”. While these sessions provided a very good insight on how insurance cover is produced, the complexity involved in the process of generating such insurance cover just exploded. But I am confident that the next part of the FERMA/Lloyd’s programme will deal with this complexity. The sessions also provided a good insight into the
significant use of face to face meetings as a part of the process.

Networking
Over the two days I managed to connect with some of the participants and get good insight on how risks and insurances are being managed in their companies. I also got an understanding of how insurance managers at our customers potentially could benefit from using safety and condition monitoring systems. I will be looking forward to connecting with more participants and continuing the talk with others during the second part of the programme.

ONE MINUTE SURVEY

What were the highlights of the two days for you?
Overall, the various aspects that I would like to highlight are session’s quality, as well the immersion in the industry and the discovery of new products. The best experience was participating in the market and my biggest surprise was seeing how dynamic negotiations were.

One of the great successes of this programme is the ability to create a unique networking opportunity for European risk managers to share experiences, needs and concerns. The group of risk managers connected quickly during the first break and it was a pleasure to meet them and share knowledge with each other. I would say that this was a “high impact networking” experience!

How do you think what you have learned will be useful for your work?
I truly believe this programme is very helpful from beginning to end. It provides an exceptional opportunity for risk managers to gain new perspectives and points of view. I have attended just the first session and, upon my return, I began to question some of my previous decisions and I am more analytical (even critical) now. As a result, I have a superior capacity to look for new, alternative and differentiated solutions. Lloyd’s, FERMA and our national risk management association (AGERS) have given us by this programme a superb opportunity for practical training, enhanced development and better focus our careers as risk managers.

What were the highlights of the two days for you?
These were great days in many ways. My top three highlights were: (i) access to top management providing us with valuable insights into Lloyd’s in an unexpectedly transparent manner, (ii) the broker/underwriter shadowing exercises that gave us an outstanding educational experience and (iii) the exchanges both on professional and personal level we had within the group.

How do you think what you learned will be useful in your work?
To know that at Lloyd’s the spirit is “never say never” definitely opens opportunities to proactively seek improved transfer solutions. As insurance risk managers, we are all facing similar issues in one way or another. It is good to know that at national and European level, we can rely on each other’s knowledge and experience to continue bringing value to our respective companies.

• Cristina Gutiérrez, risk managers, imar grupo (Spain)
• Julien Rouaud, insurance risk manager, Allnex (Belgium)