“Our educators face the continuing
challenge that almost nobody goes to
college planning to major in risk
management and insurance,” says Sommer.
BY CAROLINE MCDONALD
AN INCREASING emphasis on en- terprise risk management (ERM) in the corporate world is reflected in
the higher-education sector, with
more courses and research exploring the concept at universities
with established RM programs.
“We’ve increasingly been
focusing more on ERM [in the
classroom], and we’ve focused
quite heavily on that area on
the research side as well,” says
Robert E. Hoyt, the Moore
Chair and professor of risk
management and insurance at
the Terry College of Business at
the University of Georgia.
“In risk-management education, the biggest trend in
recent years has been toward
ERM,” agrees David W. Sommer, the
Charles E. Cheever Professor of Risk
Management at the Bill Greehey School
of Business at St. Mary’s University in San
Antonio, Texas.
Sommer, who is also chairman
of the American Risk and Insurance
Association, a professional association of
insurance scholars, notes that a number
of institutions have introduced courses in
ERM and “have adapted their curriculum
to reflect a broader view of risks, including
topics beyond just insurable risks.”
“There is a much broader focus on the
big picture of risk management,” Sommer
adds. “That’s been the biggest change in
curriculum in recent years.”
Sommer observes that students are
looking for an education that will get them a
job when they graduate and will also position
them for rapid growth in their career. “So
that’s also part of the increasing ERM focus;
it’s what employers want,” he adds.
through career fairs, alumni visits, trips to
industry conferences or other methods.
“I always feel like the risk-management
area of a business school shines the most
when economic times are hard,
because usually when other
areas are having a hard time
placing their students, there
still are good opportunities for
risk-management insurance
students,” Sommer observes.
And to prepare students
for successful careers in risk
management—which just as
often start on the broker or carrier
side of the insurance equation as
they do on the corporate-buyer
side—Sommer says the goal is
“to give them the tools to hit
the ground running, but also
the foundation to build on for
moving up within corporate-risk
management and ERM roles.”
I always feel like the risk-management area of a business school
shines the most when economic times
are hard.”
David W. Sommer, Charles E. Cheever Professor of Risk
Management at the Bill Greehey School of Business
at St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas
We’re no longer an industry where just our industry credentials are needed, because risk management and insurance is touching every facet of business now.” Kathleen McCullough, Associate Professor and State Farm Insurance Professor in Risk Management/ Insurance with The Florida State University at the College of Business, Tallahassee, Fla.
“Students generally don’t know what risk
management even means, and they have a
negative impression of insurance.”
The big initial hurdle that needs to
be cleared is inducing a student to enroll
in an introductory class. Once that’s
accomplished and students are ready to
listen, a core early objective is to make
students aware of the ample employment
opportunities that await them, whether
RISK MANAGEMENT 101
But before students can start to undertake
advanced studies in ERM, they first need
a much more basic lesson—namely, what
is risk management, and why does it lend
itself to a satisfying career?
IN GEORGIA, RISK
MANAGEMENT IS ON
STUDENTS’ MINDS
WHILE GETTING students to consider a career
in risk management is a challenge at many
universities, that’s not the case for at least one.
Robert E. Hoyt, the Moore Chair and professor of risk management and insurance
at the Terry College of Business at the
University of Georgia, notes: “We are somewhat unique in that we have a rather large
risk-management program that has been
around for a long time. So we don’t have to
spend a lot of time telling people we exist,
although we continue to get the message
out about the great opportunities.”
RISK RESEARCH TRENDS
Trends in faculty research include
examining how ERM creates value in firms.
For the last 10 years, for example,
Hoyt’s research focus has been on ERM,
specifically addressing the question of “why
a more holistic view of risk management
would matter—and trying to test whether
it does,” he says. “And if it does provide
value, what’s the evidence and why?”
His research paper, “The Value of
Enterprise Risk Management,” looks to
establish a value premium using stock-
market measures between companies that
have introduced an ERM program vs. those
that have not.
The project, begun more than five
years ago, will appear in the Journal of Risk
and Insurance.
“The reason my co-author and I
embarked on the project was because
every time I would make a presentation
about ERM, people would say, ‘Yes, but
we don’t really know whether it adds
value,’” Hoyt explains. “Or people would
say, ‘We’re trying to make the business case
for whether ERM is a good idea.’ We have
