Winter 2019

With the new year upon us, many executives likely are sitting at their desks trying to divine what risks and rewards the next year or two may hold. I’m no more prescient than anyone else, but I think it’s safe to say some emerging risks will enter the mainstream, and new risks will emerge – they always do.

The term artificial intelligence, or AI, has become as ubiquitous as air and water, yet there’s extensive misunderstanding about what AI is (and is not) and what it really can (and cannot) do.

In the fast-paced world of connected autos, the future has arrived: eight of the top ten personal auto insurance carriers have implemented their own usage-based insurance (UBI) programs. In the current market, insurers that haven’t piloted or implemented a UBI program may be falling behind, a delay that could negatively affect profitability.

Every day, a battery of Earth-observing systems is collecting an astonishing breadth of information globally. Satellites in space as well as gauges, instruments, and sensors across Earth’s surface together are providing a continuously updating data stream. They watch for long-term changes in natural land cover and human land use; rain, wind, and temperature changes in the atmosphere; water in the soil and over land; extreme flows in rivers; and rising tides, tsunamis, and storm surges in the oceans.

Two hurricanes in 2018, both with vastly different projections, proved again the power and unpredictability of Mother Nature—and brought a sharp reminder of the importance of hurricane preparedness.

In the annals of California’s wildfires, 2018 marked the 15th anniversary of the Cedar Fire. Spread by Santa Ana winds, this wildland-urban interface (WUI) fire wreaked havoc across San Diego County, burning more than 273,000 acres and destroying more than 2,800 structures.

Two ladders loosely joined with rope and duct tape—that was someone’s idea of an extension ladder. And it’s what one commercial building manager provided to an ISO property inspector to access the roof of his building. Another commercial building manager had no ladder, so he offered to hoist an inspector up to the roof using a wooden pallet and a forklift. In other cases, building managers have flat out refused to grant access.

When dealing with supply chain material compliance (SCMC), choosing the best of bad options is a default position that companies often attempt to avoid. Wide-ranging regulations touched by SCMC cover product safety, social responsibility, global chemical and materials regulations, and downstream customer expectations imposed upon manufacturers, distributors, importers, and exporters of regulated materials.