“Sigma7 launched partly to be a market disruptor,” said Rob McMullen (pictured above), US-based president of Paragon Risk Engineering.
McMullen’s firm was one of three acquisitions announced in May by a new company called Sigma7, the same month that company launched.
The accompanying media release described Sigma7 as “a new kind of risk services model” with a client base including more than 300 of the “largest and most complex organizations” in the world.
“Through Sigma7 our clients have access to world leaders, to military leaders, to business leaders and others around the globe who ensure the right outcomes are achieved,” said McMullen.
He gave the example of a mining company that lost its license to operate in an African country. “A phone call and visit to the nation’s leader and the license was re-instated,” he said.
McMullen was in Australia last month.
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“The merger of Paragon into the Sigma7 platform is an exciting time for us,” he said. “My very first international visit as part of Sigma7 is down here to Australia because Australia has always been a vital operation of the Paragon business and Sigma7 has already realised the importance of Australia and New Zealand.”
McMullen is very proud of the company he helped found in 2009. He has the firm’s emblem tattooed on to his forearm. The dictionary definition of paragon, he said, is “a model of precision and excellence.” Paragon claims to be one of the largest - if not the largest - privately owned risk management platforms in the world. It is also independent from any insurer or broker entities.
McMullen explained the significance of Sigma7 as a risk management offering.
“The world of risk is a very fragmented industry,” he said, “Some companies like Paragon have very specific technical expertise in risk engineering and risk consulting. Other companies could be really strong in cyber, others in forensic accounting - you can count the whole spectrum, so it's very fragmented. The Sigma7 vision is to pull all those together so that customers effectively have a one stop shop.”
He said that, currently, corporations don’t have this option.
“Today’s strategic decisions are often made with static and subjective risk information, leading to businesses achieving suboptimal outcomes,” said McMullen.
He said organisations need “quantifiable information” to make better-informed decisions.
“Many of our competitors generate reports with information that you can find in a magazine or searching the internet,” said McMullen. “Our work is purely quantifiable, and outcome-focused across all risk domains.”
McMullen said Sigma7’s “continuous support model” reduces volatility, exposure, and risk spending.
“It enables our clients to visualize and quantify, in real time, the risks and threats to their people, operations and supply chains,” he said.
McMullen described Paragon’s business specifically as “the entire scope of commercial property insurance.” He included hotels and airports at the lower risk, less complex end of their business up to “the most complex things, like an underground coal mine.”
He said Paragon now leads Sigma7’s risk engineering pillar.
“Sigma7 is delivering client value in strategic risk advisory, risk quantification/exposure valuation, risk engineering and risk response and recovery,” he said.
He added that Paragon’s customers now have the opportunity to participate in all of the services offered by the Sigma7 platform.
“So how it applies to Australia is how it applies to the rest of the world, which is most of the buyers of these services, according to our market research, would prefer to have a trusted partner to provide for the whole range of their risk advisory services,” he said.
McMullen said Paragon has recognized for some time that its clients were underserved in the risk marketplace.
“We believe that a platform of specialist capabilities will better serve our unbundled clients and our insurer and broker partners,” he added.
On its website, Sigma7 says its team now consists of more than 200 risk professionals. Apart from Paragon, its firms include UK-based Strategia Worldwide, described as a “robust strategic risk advisory services drawing upon established military methodology”; US-based RWH Myers, a “leading forensic accounting loss recovery experts for policyholders on large property, cyber and business interruption claims”; and, Risk & Strategic Management, a “world leader in resilience advisory services, ISO and BSI document design, accredited instructor led and online training and field operations.”
