Roads to Resilience

Appendix B: Details of Methodology

Choice of method The research described in this report was exploratory and it aimed to answer the question: “How do successful organisations manage risk?” A survey would be inappropriate to answer this question, as not enough background data could be gathered on respondent organisations to understand the context in which they were managing risk and achieving resilience. Therefore, case study research was chosen as the most appropriate method, as it allows an in-depth understanding of organisations and their business environment to be generated. This decision was also based on the view that a clear understanding of the steps that companies need to take to become resilient, with examples of specific approaches from companies, was not available. Sample organisations In total, more than 20 successful organisations that were known to have a strong focus on risk management were considered. Contacts from Airmic and the sponsors – Crawford, Lockton and PwC – were used to approach these organisations, but some felt unable to commit the time required, whereas eight successful organisations agreed to provide access for the research. These were AIG, Drax, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), Jaguar Land Rover, Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), The Technology Partnership (TTP), Virgin Airlines and Zurich Insurance. Data collection Three sources of data were used: interviews, documentary evidence and the results of a management workshop on resilience (held at Cranfield School of Management on 11 July 2013). At each organisation, in-depth interviews

were conducted with managers and various staff. A wide range of job titles are represented by the respondents: from CEOs to risk managers, from marketing managers to operations managers, and from finance managers to non- executive board members. The job titles of the interviewees at each organisation are given in Table B-1. (Note that only two managers could be interviewed at the ODA, but this was considered a unique opportunity to learn about that organisation’s approach before it was dissolved as planned.) More than 80 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 70 people between August 2012 and May 2013. Approximately 70% were conducted face-to-face and the rest were made by telephone. The majority of the interviewees agreed for the interviews to be recorded and this led to more than 1,000 pages of transcripts for analysis, in which managers at different levels of their organisations candidly explained how they manage risk and achieve resilience. Where recording was not possible, the interviewers kept notes during the interviews. Multiple interviews at different levels were used in each organisation to obtain a comprehensive picture of risk management. The second source of data was documents. Extensive use was made of data from company annual reports, websites and the risk management process descriptions provided by organisations (these were mostly sourced from the companies’ internal presentation materials). Interestingly, the organisations are very open about their practices and, for example, IHG publishes full details of many of its approaches on its website and in its annual report.

Table B-1 Job titles of the interviewees at case study organisations

No.

Case Study Organisation

Number of Interviewees

Job Titles

1

AIG

12

CEO EMEA CFO Chief Risk Office & Head of Strategic Planning Director Aggregation Director Property Executive Director, UK Commercial Lines Executive Director, UK Consumer Lines UK CFO UK Chief Risk Officer UK Head of Client Services UK Head of Legal UK Managing Director

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Roads to Resilience: Building dynamic approaches to risk to achieve future success