Tea is no longer such a prominent beverage in the United Kingdom, according to the Daily Telegraph. Of course, U.K. puritans of the beverage do not consider the flowery chamomile, peppermint and sleepy time teas to be “tea” at all. So the decline in pure tea drinkers does not necessarily reflect an insurmountable defection to Starbucks’ prominent presence in the country.
But U.K. managers are encountering other American experiences they would surely rather avoid more than a grande latte whatnot. Legislation in the United Kingdom has led to an explosion in the severity of asbestos exposures. At a closed-door session during this year’s Association of Insurance and Risk Managers (AIRMIC) conference, a room packed with risk managers discussed how, as a result of government action, insurers are pulling coverage at the most inopportune times.
This is not a new experience for the U.S. risk manager, who has been handling asbestos claims and asbestos-wary insurance companies for years. Although the U.K. trigger—regulation—appears to be more sudden, on the other side of the Atlantic, the rise in cost of class action lawsuits has been no less severe.
On more than just this topic, risk managers from the United States, United Kingdom and elsewhere could learn a lot from each other. “We’re all in the same boat when it comes to the insurance market,” said David Ireland, AIRMIC chairman.
As a result, “we’re looking at different ways of cover risk without insurance—because of the lack of it,” said David Wilkenson, chairman of the Australian Risk Management Association. “The fact that we’re doing it is only enhancing the role of risk management.”
Paul Taylor, vice president of FERMA (Federation of European Risk Management Associations), thinks that leaning away from insurance is inevitable. If corporations expose themselves to the potential 30 million pound-hit of a merger or acquisition, he said, “why bother insuring a risk that is fifty thousand pounds?” He sees organizations taking a broader look at a basket of risk and not buying much insurance beyond catastrophe protection.
Although “having a cuppa” might not be so common in the United Kingdom anymore, the tea/coffee breaks during the conference were still dominated by dark carafes of strong tea. And greetings and partings dotted with “cheers,” reverberated about the conference hall and the Manchester city streets. Those distinctly British traits are likely never to vanish entirely from the region. Systems of managing risk, however, are likely to become less country-specific as the world creeps toward a better understanding of international integration of efforts to combat the risks and challenges of the field.
