Allianz General risk management safeguards your business

In the ever-changing global business landscape, risk management has become a vital part of any organisation’s business strategy in assisting to identify potential risks to its business.

Risk Management, in all of its form is essentially the process of identification, assessment and prioritisation of risks. This is then ensued by the process of minimising, monitoring and controlling the probability or impact of an unfortunate event. The entire process will be conducted by a coordinated and economical application of resources.

Risks can range from the simplest thing such as the incorrect placement of sprinklers and smoke detectors to not having adequate auxiliary diesel power generators which can provide electrical energy in cases of power outage.  And risk engineers play a pivotal role in being able to advice and recommend solutions in safeguarding business assets. Risk engineers analyse the risks and hazards apparent in a particular process or operation within an organisation and come up with a risk assessment. They then offer advice to clients in finding solutions to reduce those risks.

Globally, Allianz risk engineers have a strong presence of 235 personnel in regions such as Europe, Americas, Mediterranean and Asia, in areas such as property, engineering , management, liability, marine, energy, aviation and cyber. There are 37 Allianz risk engineers serving in Asia. Eleven of them currently serve with  Allianz General Insurance Company (Malaysia) Berhad (Allianz General), making it the second biggest team in the continent after Bajaj Allianz General Insurance (India) with 25. Allianz General are experts in areas of property, liability, engineering, marine (cargo)  and its team of local risk engineers are globally certified professional Risk Engineers in the field of Science, Risk Management and Engineering.

On the job, Allianz risk engineers provide risk analysis and consultation. The risk engineers identify and analyse possible risks to promote loss control measures and provide tailor-made practical guidelines and safety standards in re-engineering processes or operations. The process begins with a structured discussion in understanding the client’s business operations followed by a risk survey. Clients will then obtain a comprehensive summary of the risk analysis (both qualitative and quantitative) and a recommendation for improvements and loss control. The methods are applied to the simplest manufacturing facility to a combined cycle power plant or hi-tech manufacturing.

“As experts in our field, our risk engineers understand and appreciate what the client does and not just hear but listen to the issues that they may have in their operations. This is so that we can analyse the root cause and provide ‘best practice’ and practical solutions, instead of merely to satisfying certain regulations or standards,” said Rafliz Ridzuan, Chief Underwriting Officer.

“Our trump card would be our global connectivity, where we are able to share ‘best practices’ among fellow risk engineers within Allianz, leveraging on global experiences which in turn, will be used to assist clients towards risk improvements. We emphasise ‘risk improvement recommendations’ and ‘loss control’ as we firmly believe preventing risks is better than damage control,” added Rafliz.

Allianz General also plans to expand its value added services in risk management by offering services such as loss control and risk engineering, quantitave risk analysis , consultancy for fire protection testing and comissioning  as well as business continuity management, in the near future.

Besides that, Allianz’s risk management portfolio currently included four new Crisis Management products – Terrorism and Political Violence Insurance, Automotive Recall Policy, Allianz Global Pro Plus and Environment Protect – which are available through the  brokers and exclusive agents of Allianz General for companies looking to acquire heightened protection for their business.