WILLIS CEO PLUMERI SAYS BUSINESS MUST CONFRONT NEW RISKS; URGES TRANSPARENCY AS ONLY WAY TO RESTORE TRUST
At Town Hall Los Angeles, Willis CEO identifies top 10 risks facing business in the coming decade
Highlights risks of global climate change, work of Willis Research Network on California "ARkStorm"
LOS ANGELES, December 8, 2009 - Joe Plumeri, Chairman and CEO of Willis Group Holdings Limited, the
global insurance broker, today called on corporate leaders to recognize and address the risks facing business
at the start of a new decade. Mr. Plumeri delivered his remarks at Town Hall Los
Angeles, one of the nation's premier forums.
Plumeri asserted that the world has changed dramatically over the past 10 years, highlighted what he considers
the top ten risks facing business today, and argued that companies have yet to make the
changes necessary to adapt to a more dangerous and unpredictable world.
"The risks confronting business today are new, complex and increasing. The old answers just won't cut it,"
Plumeri said in prepared remarks at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel. "Before our government bailed out
Citibank, AIG and General Motors, most of us thought those things could never happen - but
they did. The world has changed dramatically in the past decade. It's a dangerous place full
of new and complex risks. But are we doing anything differently today? I don't think so."
Plumeri also said new risks have emerged at the end of the first decade of the 21st
century that barely received consideration 10 years ago, including global climate change, terrorism, pandemic disease, the
cost and availability of credit, globalization, cyber security, piracy on the high seas, supply chain integrity,
increased regulatory and compliance dangers and greater threats to corporate reputation.
Pointing to studies that show trust in business has crumbled during the economic downturn, Plumeri argued that
the most effective way to manage these emerging challenges is for leaders to adopt a new
commitment to transparency in recognizing and mitigating risk.
"Whether it's severe weather or pandemics or cyber security, the simple truth is that the risks of
the 21st century are big, and real, and must be faced openly and transparently," Plumeri said,
urging business leaders to embrace enterprise risk management. "As business leaders, we must look at all
the risks we face and address them head on. And we have to be honest and
open about what we see and what we're doing about it. That is the only way
to make our customers and the public believe in us again."
Noting that California, in particular, faces a severe threat from the effects of global climate change, Plumeri
also highlighted the work of the Willis Research Network to study and assess these emerging risks.
The network is an industry-leading public-private partnership between Willis and many of the top scientific research
institutions in the world.
In California, Willis is working with the U.S. Geological Survey on "ARkStorm," a simulation of a major
weather event comparable to the severe storms that flooded Los Angeles and created lakes in the
Mojave Desert during the winter of 1861-1862. While most people may barely imagine such a storm
hitting again, Willis is working to address the risks of a disaster that most climate scientists
consider to be inevitable. Property and related losses from a storm of similar force today likely
would exceed $50 billion, according to scientists in the Willis Research Network.
The full text of Plumeri's prepared remarks is available here.
About Willis
Willis Group Holdings Limited is a leading global insurance broker, developing and delivering professional insurance, reinsurance, risk
management, financial and human resource consulting and actuarial services to corporations, public entities and institutions around
the world. Willis has more than 400 offices in nearly 120 countries, with a global team
of approximately 20,000 Associates serving clients in some 190 countries. Additional information on Willis may be
found at www.willis.com.
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