In early August, Dan Reynolds, the editor-in-chief of Risk & Insurance, caught up with Andrew Tait, a managing director with Sigma 7. What follows is a transcript of that interview, edited for length and clarity.

Risk & Insurance: Nice to meet you, Andrew. What is Sigma 7, and what services does the company provide?

Andrew Tait: Sigma 7 is a global independent tech-enabled risk and resilience advisor with offices in 12 countries, serving clients in approximately 90 countries. We have a team of over 300 experts specializing in risk engineering, forensic accounting and diligence, intelligence, resilience and security.

Our goal is to help clients achieve better risk outcomes, whether through working with brokers, supporting insurers, or engaging directly with clients. We work across multiple industries to provide comprehensive risk advisory services.

R&I: Could you walk us through your career journey and the experiences that led you to your current role at Sigma 7?

AT: In the early days of my career, I worked as a risk engineer with FM. I then joined Johnson & Higgins, where I had the unique opportunity to serve as both a risk engineer and a property broker simultaneously for five years.

After Marsh acquired J&H, I transitioned to the client side, joining the risk team of one of my largest clients, a French chemical/pharmaceutical company. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions — first a merger with a large German firm and subsequently acquisition by another French company — we had the exciting task of integrating global complex programs and creating new solutions. During this time, I had the privilege of working with what I consider to be the best risk management team in the world. Our empowering boss and supportive CFO allowed us to achieve remarkable things.

After my expat assignment in France ended, I returned to the United States and founded a consulting company that was acquired by JLT, a British firm. At JLT, I had the opportunity to work globally, helping clients design custom risk programs. When Marsh acquired JLT, I stayed on as a global adviser for a while. It was then that I discovered the opportunity at Sigma 7, which brings me to my current role.

R&I: How has your diverse experience working for a brokerage, a carrier, and on risk management teams affected your perspective on risk mitigation and risk transfer?

AT: First and foremost, the insurance industry is a people business. I’ve been fortunate to work with some of the best professionals in the field, whether at FM, J&H/Marsh, JLT or Sanofi Aventis.

Learning risk engineering the old-fashioned way, by getting my hands deep into the problem, has been invaluable. Additionally, through my work with exceptional client executives, I’ve learned to focus on what’s important to the client and deliver accordingly. When you prioritize client results and satisfaction, everything else falls into place.

R&I: What employment experience had the most significant impact on your personal and professional growth?

AT: I believe my time at Aventis was the most transformative. I got to run enterprise risk management, business continuity management and supply chain risk management. Because Aventis is a Fortune 100 company with complex risks, I had the opportunity to work across all departments, businesses and parts of the world to tackle challenging issues, which was incredibly rewarding. From taking large retentions to creating a property insurance mutual, we got to do some amazing things.

I got to collaborate with our captive leader to overhaul seven captives and develop a new, fit-for-purpose captive solution. We partnered with IRMG, another iconic provider, and established a strategic capture program that’s still in place today.

R&I: How did your thinking shift when you transitioned from FM to a brokerage? What insights did you gain from this change?

AT: The transition from FM to the brokerage side was eye-opening for me. At FM, I would visit different clients every day, sometimes not seeing them again. I didn’t get to see the whole story.

However, when I moved to the broker side, I had a focused set of clients. Getting deeply embedded with them, visiting their sites, building relationships and helping fix problems fundamentally shaped how I still work today. When I work for a client, I view myself as one of their employees.

That early experience of appreciating clients’ business from the inside and aligning myself with their success has carried through to my current approach. I strive to deeply understand each client’s unique challenges and goals, and to serve them with the same dedication as if I were part of their internal team.

R&I: How does Sigma7’s work in risk management benefit various stakeholders, including client shareholders and insurers?

AT: If we can help a company have better risk outcomes and manage risk more effectively, we’re creating value for multiple stakeholders. Better risk management directly benefits the shareholders by protecting their investment and potentially increasing returns. It also helps insurers by reducing the likelihood and severity of claims. Furthermore, it supports the CFO in managing the company’s financial risks by making risk informed investment in risk management. Ultimately, our work in risk management contributes to the long-term stability and success of the companies we serve, which in turn benefits all stakeholders involved.

R&I: What do you see as the emerging risk management challenges that people should keep their eyes on?

AT: I believe one of the key challenges is ensuring that the risk management group is viewed as relevant and valuable by the executive team. They must recognize the importance of risk management to the company and deliver solutions to support that.

Equally important, if not more so, is being valued by the operations teams. The people who actually create the products or deliver the services need to appreciate the benefits that effective risk management brings, whether through risk financing or risk management investment.

Another significant challenge is dealing with the changing risk landscape — not just for the short term, tied to the current renewal cycle, but for the next five to 10 years. Risk managers must consider the potential impact of climate change, geopolitical shifts and supply chain disruptions on their future business. The goal is to help the business think about these issues proactively, rather than reactively when it’s too late.

R&I: What advice would you give risk managers about the importance of relationships with their partners and how they can succeed in those relationships?

AT: Having a broker and advisory team that you can trust is more critical than ever. Resources are constantly being asked to do more with less, whether it’s on the broker side, the insurer side or the client side.

It’s essential to work with client executives and brokers who truly have your back and are there to help you with day-to-day challenges as well as long-term issues that may not be tied to the current renewal cycle but set you up for success down the road. The best in the industry bring the most effective solutions to address your needs and welcome partnering with other resources.

However, I often see of bandwidth issues or turf protection where the brokers or insurers don’t want to bring in other experts to help, and clients just can’t get the solutions they need. They prefer to handle everything themselves, even if they can’t provide the client with exactly what they need, in order to avoid losing some “share of wallet” or revenue.

R&I: Where do you see opportunities in your business that excite you and your team?

AT: I’ll focus on two areas. First, leveraging AI and technology is a topic that comes up daily and presents significant opportunities; we see this as a critical tool to provide exponentially increased value.

Second, I see a movement to think about risk differently. Risk can’t be avoided, and appreciating that having a better understanding of it and a more intentional approach to addressing it with a longer-term view will lead companies to take the extra effort to think about things like resilience and investment differently. That’s almost our mission statement — taking smart risk.

R&I: What are the opportunities you see shaping the future of risk management?

AT: AI is a hot topic that every company, no matter the industry, is talking about. While having the best talent is critical, it’s equally important to equip it with tools that enhance efficiency, effectiveness and capacity to deliver more with less while adding value.

Integrating risk disciplines is another valuable trend. Instead of having multiple groups managing risk independently, bringing them together to harness each other’s power and thinking about risk under a broader umbrella is so valuable. This is especially important when competing for limited resources and ensuring that funds are allocated where they matter most. By doing this well, you can elevate your risk management program to a higher level, putting a capital “R” and “M” in the label.

Another significant focal point is harnessing the talent entering the industry today. Unlike many of us who entered the field by chance, the new generation is coming prepared with technology, risk awareness, training on systems and tools, and an understanding of enterprise risk that we didn’t have 30 years ago. I’m excited to see what these young professionals will accomplish in the next 20 years.

R&I: What big obstacles do you see risk managers facing today?

AT: Maybe the biggest can be framed as a question: Are you always challenging the status quo? If you have a team that is comfortable with the way things have been done for years and believes it works just fine, you may be left behind.

Risk teams nowadays need to think about this even more. Are we challenging the status quo? Are we partnering with the right resources both externally and internally?

If we can drive effective engagement with health and safety, operations, supply chain, finance and all the key departments at the client, getting them to think about risk in a consistent way and speak the same language, we’re going to have much better results. The COO and CEO will recognize that the team is gelling and being more efficient and effective in delivering results, which will help the bottom line. The power of that, if you can do it, is significant.

R&I: Some business leaders express concerns about restrictions around retaining and recruiting the right talent. How does your company approach this issue?

AT: At Sigma 7, we’ve recognized that we can’t simply let talent develop on its own. We take an active role in nurturing and cultivating the skills and capabilities of our teams.

We invest in comprehensive training programs and provide opportunities for continuous learning and professional development. By doing so, we ensure that our employees have the necessary tools and knowledge to excel in their roles and grow within the organization.

Moreover, we prioritize creating a positive and engaging work environment that fosters collaboration, innovation and employee satisfaction. We believe that by offering a supportive and rewarding workplace, we can attract and retain top talent in our industry.

R&I: How has Sigma 7 approached training engineers to meet client demand?

AT: Sigma 7 has recognized the importance of training our own engineers to meet the evolving needs of our clients. While we bring in best-in-class engineers who we believe will fit our clients’ demands, we also invest in developing our own talent.

To achieve this, we have designed our own training program. This enables us to cultivate the skills and expertise necessary to address the challenges we anticipate in the future.

R&I: What advice would you give to risk managers looking to champion change and build effective teams for the future?

AT: When considering long-term goals and objectives, risk managers should ask themselves what they want their risk team to be in the future. If they aspire to be champions of change, they must ensure they have the right team in place.

Building an effective team may not always involve the cheapest solution or working with close acquaintances. Instead, it’s crucial to align the team with the organization’s objectives.

It’s important to invest in risk management initiatives, such as business continuity programs or building upgrades, because they are the right things to do for the company, not just because the insurance company mandates them. These investments should be based on a cost-benefit analysis which makes sense to your business. In doing so, you will also satisfy insurers that the company is proactively managing risk.

This approach also ensures that the CEO and CFO are on board, as it aligns with their thinking about every investment they make. Risk managers should adopt a three-to-five-year planning horizon and envision where they want things to progress in the future, rather than focusing solely on a 12-month timeline. &