In the video above, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg — the 87-year-old architect of AIG and current chairman and CEO of C.V. Starr & Co. — speaks his mind in an interview with Carrier Management
He talks about:
his time in the Korean War
his “purely by chance” start in insurance after returning stateside
how he fired the first personnel director he met in the industry (a “jerk” whose “attitude was very, very negative”)
the mark of a good executive (one who “tries to be himself” rather than just following in someone else’s footsteps “to be like them” — “if you don’t think independently, what are you: You’re just a copycat”)
How corporate culture evolves over time (“you’ve got to be sensitive to change”)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have teamed up to highlight flood risk with their Flood Safety Awareness Week. In many ways, flooding is the most-damaging natural disaster facing the United States, noted Dr. Louis W. Uccellini, director of the National Weather Service (a branch of NOAA).
“Flooding is dangerous and costly, killing nearly 100 people and causing an average of eight billion dollars in property damage in the United States each year,” said Dr. Uccellini. “A weather-ready nation is a prepared nation; one that will reduce flood losses by planning ahead, staying abreast of weather forecasts and heeding the warnings.”
The agencies’ goal for the week is obvious: improving awareness of the risk and how citizens can stay safe.
FEMA’s Ready.gov site has several more tips to preparing for times before, during and after a flood, as does NOAA’s website, which offers information on its “Turn Around Don’t Drown” campaign. This campaign is something NOAA has been been highlighting for years, pushing those who encounter flood conditions on the road to head the other way rather than get stuck in water — or worse, if the road beneath is washed away.
According to NOAA, more than half of flooding-related deaths occur when people are driving.
It remains mystifying how many people don’t understand that the foundation of the Industrial Revolution, the combustion engine, relies on, ya know, combustion to work. And combustion — a fancy word for fire — requires oxygen. Which, I’ve heard, is not plentiful underwater.
One other interesting facet of this year’s advocacy is the focus on the 100-year anniversary of The Great Flood of 1913, something local survivor Bishop Milton Wright called a flood “second only to Noah’s.”
In late March of 1913 rain fell in such an excess over the Ohio Valley that no river in Ohio and most of Indiana remained in its banks. Bridges, roads, railways, dams, and property were washed away.
In its wake, at least 600 lost their lives, a quarter million people were left homeless, and damages were estimated in the hundreds of millions, making it at that time one of the worst natural disasters the United States had witnessed.
When disaster struck this part of the U.S. starting Easter Sunday, 1913 and lasting for weeks, it had a ripple effect across the entire nation. The damage to roads, railways, telephone and electrical lines paralyzed commerce in and out of the region.
online pharmacy revia with best prices today in the USA
This affected people across the country, unlike previous disasters where impacts were primarily localized.
online pharmacy cipro with best prices today in the USA
As a result, there was national outcry for state and federal governments to reevaluate their role in flood control.
Through it has been a century since the disaster, it remains one of the largest tragedies in U.
online pharmacy strattera with best prices today in the USA
S. history.
Still, those who lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods may be able to take solace in the fact that they helped prompt a larger discussion of the risk. This nation’s history is spotted with catastrophes that helped spark change and this was one of the first in terms of increasing disaster preparedness.
Over at the Innovation Excellence, they are posting a multi-part series on a recent survey of chief strategy officers. The latest part looks at how the average CSO spends their day. There is some bad news for those risk managers who continue to hope that the siloed mentality of companies may be changing: The survey found that chief strategy officers spend just 8% of their time thinking about cultural change.
Well, if they aren’t thinking about it, who would be?
Alas, while great strategy can continue to spur growth, it seems that the status quo is tough to change.
Additionally, however, risk managers should be able to benefit from understanding what CSOs view as the toughest challenges to corporate growth in 2013. The chart above shows that, yet again, changing behavior (this time, customers’) is the biggest hurdle while volatility (chiefly in the political environment followed by uncertainty in the financial markets) makes up the next two largest challenges.
Increased competition and changing technologies round out the top five.
At this point, everybody knows that flying is safer than driving. Many Americans still have an emotional fear of the friendly skies, but the numbers don’t lie: more than 30,000 people die each year on the nation’s roads while just 153 perished in plane crashes in the past decade (2002-2011).
Still, just because the death total is low doesn’t mean that airlines and airports should become complacent.
An upcoming article in Risk Management magazine highlights how there were more accidents on the tarmac in 2012 than 2011, and Vernon Grose, a former Boeing employee and National Transportation Safety Board member, believes that the next plane crash might be the worst ever?
Looking forward, there are at least five serious issues affecting airline safety that must be systematically addressed for their inherent risk:
Larger Aircraft.The trend in new airliners is increased passenger capacity. Whether airline safety is measured as fatal crashes per year, deaths per flight, or deaths per flight hour, there is another safety indicator of concern – deaths per crash. The Airbus A-380 with its full, two-deck economy configuration will seat up to 853 passengers. The deaths-per-crash could easily exceed 1,000 should it collide with any other typical airliner. Even if the A-380 experienced fire while on the ground, imagine emergency evacuation from two levels via slides for the elderly, infirmed and small children. The last fatal crash in the U.S. was Colgan Air Flight 3407 near Buffalo in February 2009 – wherein only 50 died.
World-wide financial crisis. The financial challenges of this decade have placed airlines in jeopardy, forcing many into bankruptcy or mergers. Four major U.S. airline mergers have recently occurred, creating considerable risk for airline safety. Not only are both passengers and employees losers in this trend, but airline attitude, motivation, and creativity atrophy. Example: airline pilots over-flying Minneapolis for over an hour in 2009 while focused exclusively on discussing their future after a merger.
Machines replacing humans. The transfer of aircraft piloting responsibility from humans to machines increases risk. Technological sophistication favors efficiency (e.g., fuel conservation) over judgmental involvement. Example: Air France 447 crash in 2009 due to pilot inability to comprehend automated but inadequate flight status.
Cyber-terrorism. The threat of cyber-terrorism is on the rise, and airline operations are vulnerable to potential disruption of networked infrastructure in communications, air traffic control, routing, and weather forecasting. All airborne airliners (1,000+ over the U.S. at any time) are in a 3-dimensional environment that depends on separation, guidance, and location information external to the aircraft.
Legalization of marijuana. The most commonly used illicit drug will increasingly impact pilot performance. Effects of its use include distorted perception (sights, sounds, time, touch) as well as memory and loss of coordination. In addition, marijuana use can produce anxiety, fear, distrust, or panic. There are no accepted rules or means for detection as there are with alcohol consumption to govern pilot usage.
After reading this, maybe I will drive for my next vacation.
I’ve never been afraid of flying, but if cash-strapped airlines with glitchy and hackable computers are increasing going to be hiring weed-smoking pilots to fly jets carrying 800 people, maybe taking my chances on I-95 isn’t such a bad idea.
