JLT Specialty risk practice managing director Warren Downey tells StrategicRISK how JLT will support risk managers in 2014

What would you consider as the top three risks for businesses in 2014?

These risks differ by sectors but in general the top three risks are:

  • intangible assets;
  • cyber;
  • supply chain/interdependency risk. 

What will you doing in 2014 to support risk managers in managing the three risks identified?

In 2014, we’ll be looking at new approaches to risk assessment, risk mitigation and risk protection, including:

  • business interruption reviews and consultancy assistance to understand risks and to help better quantify risks;
  • placing risk in a way that is bespoke to the client’s needs to obtain broadest coverage and highest limits; and
  • daily monitoring of insurer developments.

What will be the biggest challenge for JLT in 2014?

Being selective in what we attempt as a business.

What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started in the industry?

How behind the ‘speed curve’ we often are, particularly when it comes to the speed at which technology changes and develops. Grasping these changes early will define the winners from the losers.

So what’s the biggest risk you’ve taken?

Some would say being fanatical about specialism above all else, but for me it is definitely that I have ‘winged it’ on my wife’s Christmas present – seriously risky.