Transcript

SPEAKER 1

I started off as an engineer. I did some engineering design and construction of chemical plants. I then went into project management and did some IT projects and programmes. I then went and did business strategy, and I then went and did some energy and commodity trading work.

And the common theme through each of those things was that where good risk management was done, the outcomes were better. The businesses performed better, the projects performed better. The chemical plants I designed were safer, were better places to work. The projects I delivered came in on time and delivered the promised benefits. The strategies that we came up with were far more robust and resilient to changing external circumstances. And the way in which we bought energy was far more effective and efficient because we'd done a proper, thorough job of risk management.

The company I now work in, risk management information is vital for us to deliver our promises to our shareholders and also to help us make the right strategic decisions going forward. And I think one of the things that's most encouraged me in my current role is we've been working very heavily with the strategy team and the leadership team, and we've actually seen a lot of our risk-based information help to steer the direction of the company in terms of its future products and activities and how it can best deliver excellent performance to its customers and also to its shareholders.

SPEAKER 2

I actually started as an accountant. And very quickly, I decided I didn't really want to do the look back to what a company has achieved. I wanted to really be involved in that looking forward in terms of what could be around the horizon, what's around the corner, and also really helping the organisation to make sure it gets to that position that it's really striving to do. And for me, risk management is that combination of being able to work right across the company, talking to all types of different people with lots of different background.

So to me, risk management, the opportunity it brings to get involved is actually, you talk to a diversity of different people with different backgrounds, different experiences, whether it's engineering one day, finance another day, supply chain professionals, health and safety professionals, legal, right across the company. I think there are very few roles in a company which really allow you to go right across. But it's really about, then, how do you take some positive action to make things as successful as possible. It's really about the success of the company is what I find really makes me passionate about risk management.