Ross Insalaco 10/27/14
RMI 300 Short Paper Assignment Prior to the beginning of this semester and the start of this risk management course I had no previous knowledge about risk management. Never before did I think that there were whole divisions of companies devoted to concept of “risk.” Risk is “the process of making and implementing decisions that will mitigate negative effects of accidental losses on an organization.” I learned that it is important for a company to be prepared for this risk and take the proper steps to reduce it. They reduce this risk in two ways, loss prevention and loss reduction. Prevention reduces the frequency of risk while reduction reduces the severity of that risk. Risk can pertain to any department or component of a business. Not only does it include financial risk and chances of losing money, but it also includes the chance of injury and freak accidents (which would ultimately lead to a monetary loss as well).
During one of our classes we had a guest speaker, Brian Moriarty. Mr. Moriarty shared with us his history in the safety industry and taught us valuable real life information to coincide with the information that we learned in class. One thing that I found particularly interesting during his presentation was the pictures he showed us of real on the job risk possibilities. Some of the pictures included hazards that seemed blatantly obvious but apparently some people don’t find things like this to be common sense. This is probably what has stood out to me most from class discussion and lectures. A lot of the time risk management is required to prevent opportunities that could cause a loss that one would not necessarily think of. Not only does the company have to be aware of the risks that results from the normal business operations but they even have to be aware of things that should go without saying. Ultimately, someone in the risk management field cannot assume that things are already known, they must prepare for all scenarios even if the situation seems like it is obviously avoidable or improbable. For example, one of the topics of discussion we had in class was about a company who had an elderly woman drive a car through the front of the company building and into a few people’s offices. It goes without saying that you’re not supposed to drive your car into a building and most people would never think of this as a risk. Most people who not plan on such a freak accident and one that is so easily avoidable yet the company is liable to risk and the loss they incur from this accident.
Another new thing that I learned about from this class is the standards that are set for a company by an agency known as OSHA (Occupation Safety and Health Administration). This company is in charge of making sure that companies fulfill the requirement s for an effective and safe work place. As Mr. Moriarty touched on as well,