BD Insights Risk Management Awards (Oct 20 2023)

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BusinessDay www.businessday.co.za Friday 20 October 2023

INSIGHTS

INSTITUTE OF RISK MANAGEMENT SA ANNUAL AWARDS

Strategies to help organisations thrive Risk is pervasive. More than ever before, organisations need to focus not only on sustainability but, more importantly, scalability — and this can only be achieved through rigorous risk management practices that identify the risks that need to be addressed as well as the upside of opportunities available, says Marisa Grundling (right), head of department for Risk and Insurance at Milpark Education.

“Risk management has become significantly more important in recent years due to an increasingly complex and interconnected business environment. Organisations that invest in comprehensive risk management strategies are better positioned to thrive in an unpredictable world,” she says.

Risk management, she says, adds immense value to companies by protecting assets, reducing financial losses, enhancing decision-making, optimising resource allocation, ensuring compliance, improving stakeholder confidence, protecting reputation, promoting business continuity, providing a competitive advantage, fostering

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Award winners make risk management a business priority Nine industry •awards cover a

long-term viability and encouraging innovation and growth.

“Effective risk management has become an integral part of strategic management and contributes to the overall success and resilience of businesses,” says Grundling.

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range of sectors, writes Lynette Dicey

T

he Institute of Risk Management South Africa (Irmsa)’s industry awards recognise organisations that have prioritised risk management in their business operations.

The judges pay particular attention to any risk-related initiatives with recognition given to those who have applied innovative and creative projects that enable sustainable growth in a responsible manner.

This year, nine industry awards were made. In the education category, the University of Venda was

Thabile Nyaba received the Honorary Membership Award. recognised for its 2022 Strategic Risk Leadership Conversations initiative at the Higher Education Conference. The judges commented that the initiative provided impactful insights, thought leadership, best practice and, most importantly, the transformative strategies that have shaped — and will continue to shape — excellence

in risk leadership into the future.

The financial services and banking industry award went to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for adding value through risk management. Its efforts have resulted in improved risk reporting and insights enabling risk-informed decision-making. The judges pointed to the quality of the JSE

organisational risk profile and the hugely successful incident management campaign which has contributed to higher quality risk information, enhanced risk culture across the business and value-add risk reporting.

The government and public services category industry award went to the South African Reserve Bank. The Bank’s Specialised Operational Risk Division, in collaboration with the Southern African Development Community, contributed to the central bank members’ resilience strategy and collaborative workshops to enhance business continuity, cyber resilience and operational risk management within the SADC region. The judges pointed to the team’s exchange of ideas and experiences which helped it build the risk management capabilities to enable effective and timeous response capabilities to external shocks, which ensures that the central banks in the region are better prepared to achieve their mandate amid continuous disruptions.

Harmony was awarded the mining industry category award. The judges said the commitment of the enterprise risk management team to turn Harmony into a risk-intelligent mining company has directly and positively impacted the four strategic pillars of responsible stewardship, operational excellence, cash certainty and capital allocation. This has contributed to an excellent risk management culture that supports the company in achieving outstanding results this year and shows that effective risk management is essential in delivering strategic and operational performance.

In the social development category, youth@WORK took top honours. This initiative placed more than 3,000 youths into jobs within the past 18 months which responds directly

Winners of the Social Development Industry Award (L-R): Nkosinathi Ndebele, Erica Kempken, Jacinta Tshidzumba and Yanga Nqenqa. to the risk identified in the Irmsa South Africa Risk Report of youth unemployment. youth@WORK partners with corporates to fund youth placements for 12-month periods while also moving the dial on transformation by empowering youth through work and is making a significant impact on securing our youth into the future.

Riskonet Africa won the professional services category in recognition of the establishment of a strategic and holistic risk management programme to reduce the total cost of risk. The programme’s outcomes now achieve more focus on medium-term risk response strategies instead of the standard insurance renewals. Ongoing strategic planning takes place to target key risk management initiatives (both insurable and other strategic exposures) to ensure that risk transfer models and risk mitigation strategies are aligned with proactive goals.

Pick n Pay Retailers won the wholesale and retail category.

Pick n Pay’s Risk Management and Combined Assurance initiative enhances reporting through interactive “live” dashboards that make information available to all levels of management to identify

risks, trends and patterns throughout the business, allowing for faster risk response strategies.

Vodacom Group won the telecommunications category.

Vodacom’s Risk Sensing Initiative has led to proactive risk identification data-driven decision-making and creates a risk-aware culture within the organisation. Through these measures, the organisation has improved its ability to navigate uncertainties, safeguard its reputation and attain strategic objectives amid the constantly evolving business landscape.

The transport and logistics category was won by Airports Company South Africa (Acsa), whose air traffic recovery initiative has significantly reshaped its risk management value proposition by transcending the traditional approach of merely listing risks to effectively respond to threats and opportunities timeously. In the context of air travel recovery, it has emerged as a critical control measure in addressing strategic risks.

This proactive approach elevates the risk management process and contributes to enhancements in risk management and has emerged as a critical control measure in addressing strategic risks.

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The overarching theme of the 2023/24 Irmsa South Africa Risk Report is that SA is in a polycrisis.

Irmsa acting CEO and chief risk adviser Christopher Palm explains that a polycrisis is a situation in which multiple crises occur simultaneously or in quick succession, creating a complex and interconnected web of risks for governments, organisations and societies.

“A polycrisis is particularly challenging to manage as it can create feedback loops, exacerbating existing problems and creating new ones,” he says.

SA’s risks have remained largely the same in recent years.

Its top risks, according to Irmsa’s Risk Report, is becoming a failed state, the systemic failure of public infrastructure, national grid failure, the proliferation of illicit economic activity, economic collapse, large-scale disruption of digitally enabled services, the impact of climate change and climate action failure, the collapse of social security systems, increasing unemployment and livelihood crisis and political instability.

The country’s failure over many years to address these risks in manageable bits has resulted in the country now facing a polycrisis.

To build a more prosperous, sustainable and inclusive future — or, in the worst case scenario,

Christopher Palm … ability to act. prevent a failed or mafia state from materialising — the report says SA needs a higher level of urgency to navigate the threats and opportunities it faces.

Irmsa’s risk reports, says Palm, have repeatedly highlighted the outcomes related to these risks, which have all materialised to various degrees of consequence.

“SA continues to face a lack of ethical and visionary leadership, persistent inequality, high unemployment and slow economic growth. In the very short term, the country will also have to find risk-response strategies to tackle the impacts of climate change, a persistent energy crisis and a significantly increasing infrastructure crisis.”

SA’s future, says Palm, relies

on the ability of good people to act and for all SA’s citizens to lead from where they are.

Irmsa is itself heeding this call for action and has called on this year’s risk management award winners to share their knowledge, experience and best practice through, for example, mentoring of youth. When it comes to youth unemployment — one of the biggest risks facing SA — Irmsa is responding proactively to the risk by liaising closely with universities regarding risk management education and providing mentorship programmes to young graduates looking to enter the industry.

Palm is determined to drive the concept of integrated thinking as far as risk management is concerned. “The future of risk management relies on integrated thinking around risk between different aspects of a business including strategy, business continuity, environmental, social and governance, among others. It entails thinking about risk both in terms of the threats and opportunities even before a particular direction is set, during execution and post execution to ensure resilient and agile organisations. To achieve inclusive growth we all need to be willing to take bold action and to address accountability, performance and consequence management.”

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BusinessDay www.businessday.co.za Friday 20 October 2023

INSIGHTS: INSTITUTE OF RISK MANAGEMENT SA ANNUAL AWARDS

Members continue to make a difference

Individual •awards honour

those who put risk management on the map

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he Institute of Risk Management South Africa’s (Irmsa) annual awards acknowledge the achievements made by members who continue to make a difference in their risk management roles and within their dynamic teams.

This year a number of individual and special awards were made.

The 2023 Risk Manager of the Year Award went to Sasol’s chief risk officer Alexandra Russell. The judges said through sharing Sasol’s planning in the event of various electricity supply scenarios playing out, Russell is trying to enable to cross-sector response which is crucial for resource optimisation and improved resilience. By working together, different companies across SA can leverage their unique contributions to address risk affecting us all. In turn, they added, this can enhance the overall resilience of the country’s economy and society.

Cynthia Mahlaba, director of Risk Management for the department of economic development, tourism & environmental affairs, was the runner-up in this category. She established a Business Continuity Management

Emmy-Pirkko Muandingi receives her award from Nicola Comninos, Chief Risk Officer for Purple Group, and Irmsa president Bheki Gutshwa. Below: Jeremy Maggs.

Committee to assist in monitoring the implementation of risks that may cause disaster and unnatural events in the department as well as a risk champions forum which meets quarterly to discuss challenges and emerging risks.

The Risk Influencer of the Year Award went to South African journalist, TV and radio presenter and media personality Jeremy Maggs. Known for his work supporting Irmsa and his tireless commitment to driving the risk narrative at a national level, Maggs has been promoting the Irmsa South Africa Risk Report with such passion that Irmsa regularly features on the more popular TV news channels, radio talk shows, Moneyweb and social and print media. The judges said Maggs put risk management on the map in the media.

The Africa Risk Management Award went to Emmy-Pirkko Muandingi, corporate risk manager at Namibia Power Corporation. Muandingi heads the risk management function

in the company. She is accredited with transforming the risk management function and has brought many improvements in how the organisation manages risks and has built a solid risk culture in NamPower.

The runner-up in the Africa Risk Management Award category is risk management practitioner Samson Masikati, enterprise risk and compliance officer for the Zimbabwe

Electricity Industry Pension Fund as well as a part-time lecturer for Midlands State University.

The Up and Coming Risk Manager of the Year Award went to Daphine Natukunda, risk manager for Movit Products. The judges pointed to her commitment, passion for knowledge sharing, mentoring, coaching and a results-oriented approach which have swiftly ingrained a risk management culture within the Movit Group.

The runner-up in this category was Smiso Gwebu, manager of operational risk at the Swaziland Building Society.

The Risk Specialist of the Year Award went to Leo-Nor Le Roux, a senior director for Risk Management and Business Partnering at NTT. An ambitious professional with compliance, risk management and governance experience, Le Roux is an accomplished leader and subject matter expert with a successful track record of dayto-day and long-term delivery, including 21 years of local and international experience in audit, compliance, risk management and governance.

The runner-up was Elliot Chandisayita. He is the internal control manager for Old Mutual Zimbabwe. He specialises in training risk practitioners in Zimbabwe and SA and is a member of the Irmsa Africa Steerco Committee.

Chandisayita is currently on a secondment programme to assist risk management in organisations to assimilate risk knowledge and competencies.

Two special awards were

Risk practitioner’s role ‘critical’ Corporate risk practitioners have had to get better at supporting their leadership in a highly uncertain world with analysis of multiple and interconnected risks and opportunities, many of them occurring simultaneously and with consequential relationships.

Alexandra Russell, chief risk officer at Sasol and the Irmsa 2023 Risk Manager of the Year, says in today’s world of greater volatility, risk practitioners are dealing with “permacrisis” — in other words, not only complex challenges, but also challenges that are here to stay with us for the longer term.

“Business leaders want risk experts to help them navigate uncertainty with effective risk management strategies tailored to the most probable or impactful scenarios and provide clear direction to try to mitigate the consequences of external shocks and remain resilient,” she explains.

A profound shift has taken place globally which has challenged traditional business models. These shifts include demographics and socioeconomic factors, a new nationalism, a tilt in business and economic power, geopolitical complexity such as the wars in Ukraine and now the Middle East, increasing pressure on natural resources and their prices, together with the energy transition, and also disruptive digitisation including artificial intelligence.

Closer to home, the South African fiscal crisis with the threat of US/UN sanctions and our ongoing greylisting further

Financial Services

Alexandra Russell … direction. threaten businesses which also face existential challenges as a result of Eskom and Transnet nonperformance.

“Leading companies are seeking to take advantage of these shifts,” says Russell. “By integrating ESG considerations into corporate strategies and operations, companies are wanting to mitigate risks, enhance their reputation, attract investment and contribute to a sustainable and responsible business environment.”

Following a thorough review of its ESG risks against strategic imperatives and by integrating sustainability considerations into its strategy and operations, she says Sasol is adopting approaches across its entire value chain to mitigate longerterm sustainability risk with a view to driving business longevity globally, coupled with a social licence to operate.

“It’s been important for my team and I to incorporate

sustainability risk considerations into the existing enterprise risk management framework to ensure a holistic approach and to align sustainability risks with financial, operational and reputational risks,” she says.

Russell has been in the governance, legal, risk and compliance arena for 20 years, having been a project finance legal specialist with a particular focus on sustainability. For three years she was a working group member on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sector Programme for drafting oil and gas reporting standards as well as for coal.

A turning point in her career at Sasol was completing the Cambridge University Sustainability Management certificate course. “The course gave me the courage to challenge — and be challenged on — existing views,” she says.

In addition to the traditional leadership skills of business acumen and strong skills in execution, Sasol equips its leaders to support it to succeed in the context of rapid change.

Part of this, for risk management practitioners, explains Russell, is a willingness to interrogate the context, recognise the systemic issues and spot key trends.

Another turning point was the opportunity to complete the Berlin European School of Management and Technology Higher Diploma Course for Executive Transition. “A key learning was that having the imagination to see opportunities is one side of the coin; having the courage to act in the face of

uncertainty is the other.”

Russell’s risk management team was responsible for leading Sasol’s crisis management response to Covid-19 under the group executive’s leadership. Being a member of the Business Unity South Africa (Busa) Advisory Council for Occupational Health and Safety (ACOHS) team helped to provide valuable insights, she says.

“The risk of a pandemic did have ample precedent with a number of ‘near misses’ from the likes of bird flu, swine flu, Sars and Mers,” she says, adding that these warnings didn’t get the red flags they should have as the spread of those viruses was ultimately contained and infection and death rates remained low.

“One key unlock which will be crucial to have in the future is improved intuition-building visualisation by means of tools such as Bayesian networks. It’s also helpful to consider what the organisation would need to be able to respond with greater agility by looking for the ‘upside’ of such risks while considering how to position the business to succeed when gradual changes become steep and sudden.”

There is no question that in today’s dynamic business landscape, the role of risk practitioners is more critical than ever. Russell says keeping pace with evolving risks and enhancing organisational resilience is paramount for success, which is why it’s so important for organisations to stay informed and make risk management a strategic advantage for their business.

Irmsa committed to enhancing discipline

also made. The Honorary Membership Award went to Thabile Nyaba, chief risk officer executive at Old Mutual Insure for her outstanding contribution toward risk management and for her phenomenal role in promoting risk management.

Nyaba, said the judges, has shown a commitment to ethical and visionary leadership, growing the profession even through the challenges of recent years.

The President’s Award went to Fulufhelo Tshikhudo, the longest-serving Irmsa board member. Currently working for Transnet, Tshikhudo was elected to the Irmsa Executive Committee in 2015 and later became the honorary secretary.

During her tenure, the Irmsa Legal, Risk and Compliance Committee was established.

This committee has enabled Irmsa to take on ambitious initiatives and leverage opportunities with the support and structure provided ensuring that Irmsa remains compliant, with its risk landscape well managed.

Managing risk is becoming an increasingly important business element given that it helps businesses to calculate the uncertainties, predict impacts and consequences and provides organisations with a basis on which to make decisions.

Across industries a lack of leadership accountability has resulted in calls for better governance and more accountable leadership to be instilled in corporate structures, says Bheki Gutshwa, president of the Institute of Risk Management South Africa (Irmsa).

Risk management as a discipline is still in its infancy in SA with many organisations not factoring in risk and unintended consequences during the decision making process, says Gutshwa. “There’s a need to integrate risk management into business decision making and for businesses to pay more attention to the unintended consequences of their decisions.”

Risk managers, he explains, alert and prepare organisations for the unexpected by mitigating or minimising the impacts of risk even before they occur, safeguarding the interests of shareholders.

“There is a significant body of research revealing that when risk management is properly integrated into the way a business makes decisions, it adds meaningful business value,” says Gutshwa. “The challenge, however, is that not all businesses take risk practitioners seriously.”

Irmsa is the professional body for risk management in SA, representing individuals and companies committed to enhancing the risk management discipline. One of its primary aims is to professionalise the discipline of risk management and better capacitate risk practitioners. It also aims to raise awareness of the critical role that risk management plays in business and society. The annual Irmsa Risk Management Awards play an important role in promoting the role of risk management.

It is currently the only recognised professional body for risk management in SA and

ONE OF THE BIGGEST RISKS FACING SA IS THE HIGH RATE OF UNEMPLOYMENT

caters for some parts of the continent. Realising that it needed to play a bigger role on the continent Irmsa has, in recent years, accepted members from the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region and even has members from as far afield as Uganda. An Irmsa chapter was recently established in Zimbabwe.

One of the biggest risks facing SA as a whole is the high rate of unemployment, and an even higher rate of youth unemployment. In response Irmsa has established the Irmsa Youth Desk to act as a bridge between the corporate sector and the youth, including graduates. In addition to helping graduates prepare themselves for the world of work in the corporate sector, it also helps corporate members better understand young incoming talent. The Youth Desk also offers internship, mentorship programmes and a link to job opportunities.

The Youth Desk plans to act as a bridge between tertiary institutions and corporate employers so the former are preparing graduates adequately for the needs of employers.

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