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Today’s landscape means businesses face an intricate web of challenges. As globalization pushes SMEs to expand into other territories, they are increasingly facing the same risks affecting large corporates – namely the rise of intangible risk, according to the chief executive of Brokerslink.
“Like all the big companies, SMEs are facing a complex set of risks today,” Jacqueline Legrand told Corporate Risk and Insurance.
Unsurprisingly, cyber and technology risks are high on the agenda – a threat facing every organization today. But as SMEs are going global they are increasingly concerned with political risk and disruption too, as well as regulatory change, compliance and supply chain risks.
“Because of social media, everything that happens to your company and employees will be out in the world very quickly today. Our clients are seeing a shift toward these intangible risks, which are more complex to work with,” Legrand said.
As a result, brokers today need to have wide expertise in a growing set of areas and must adapt to offer more than just policies.
“It’s not just about insurance, it’s preparation and prevention. Clients, and particularly the smaller companies without their own in-house expertise, really expect their brokers to have expertise in many risks and types of insurance. We are in a multi-specialization phase,” Legrand said.
Advice and good claims service are more important than ever to clients, particularly for smaller companies who need to return speedily to business following an event.
“Clients want the service, they want advice. They like the relationship and the trust. That’s why we build ourselves in the way that we have, which is to have a specialized company that can provide brokers with resources and expertise when they need it,” Legrand said.
The chief executive said that investing in technology is increasingly important to the company, to both improve internal efficiencies and provide clients with effective risk management tools.
“We are at a moment where we need to invest in technology and in people, we’re at a moment of dealing with very complex risks and clients, and one where we need to have high-level people in our company to discuss these.”
Risk management services are a growing part of Brokerslink’s business, with the firm set to host its second Risk Management Forum this year.
Legrand said: “We are very well-known in the insurance market, but we need to get our voice out into the risk management community, so they know we exist and we can also bring value. Risk managers all know the big brokers, but it’s important that they know there are other alternatives on the market, and for some of them we can be a good alternative for some of their risks and programs.”
