Vassar Joins Volkswagen Group of America
BY MATTHEW BRODSKY
Risk and Insurance Magazine
May 14, 2008
Reprinted with permission
Rick Vassar was watching Hootie & the Blowfish jam at this year's RIMS conference, and what captured his attention was not the band resurrecting its hits from the '90s.
It was how the floor in the San Diego Convention Center undulated with the carefree dancing, stomping and stumbling of the hundreds of revelers at the show.
"How much would they get sued," Vassar remembers wondering, should the floor collapse.
Chances are, considering their astute, wry nature, many other risk managers in the hopped-up Hootie audience that night had a similar thought.
But this observation is not why we're writing about Vassar. In April, he started work as risk manager for Volkswagen Group of America Inc. That's why.
"I couldn't have scripted it any better," he said about his new gig. He now works a mere 10 miles from his home in the Washington, D.C, area. It's a chance to do good things at a big company. And it gets him back to working in the automotive business, where Vassar got his start.
Turning 50 this June, Vassar first found himself in risk management back in 1986--in car rental claims at Thrifty. Three years later, he would become risk manager for the company.
It was fast success, an indication of things to come. Yet at the time, Vassar admitted, even though he knew he was good at risk management, he wasn't digging it.
Not until he found his passion for it, in education.
Then, he said, his profession became "more than just an opportunity, more than just a paycheck--a passion to try to impact the way people think about risk management."
His goal has been to try to humanize risk management to corporate, to communicate to the C-suite what risk managers should be tasked to do. He said that most people in business see risk management as a mystery that doesn't fit into their organizational charts.
"It's become a goal of mine to educate and enlighten companies that you can save money, lots of money," he said, through smart insurance buying, loss control, safety and everything else that a risk manager can provide.
Gone should be the day that bosses single out a victim in finance or legal and damn them to become the company "risk manager" ... without training ... a week before renewals.
Of course, Vassar also has set out to educate the other side of the equation: risk managers themselves.
"It's up to the risk manager to determine their place in the organization," he said, adding that it can be a difficult and tense transition. Risk managers are not the "rainmakers" in any organization, after all. They typically do not generate revenue. Risk managers can save, and that's their way of making money for their organizations, he said.
Of course, much of Vassar's sentiment is also shared by other risk managers. Besides "Only Want to Be With You" and "Hold My Hand," risk managers at RIMS also heard a very similar message from their leaders and session speakers: Risk managers should recognize, and act upon, their importance to their corporation.
But Vassar feels so strongly about the subject that he wrote the book on it--literally--a paperback titled Hide! Here Comes the Insurance Guy. Originally self-published in 2006, the title has been picked up by book printer.
Which brings us back to his new job.
The subject of his book happened to come up during the interview with VW, and he just happened to have a copy in his briefcase.
"The book lent credibility to my experience and education," Vassar said. "They were looking for someone who could come in and roll their sleeves up and get started."
Vassar might have to roll up his sleeves, loosen his tie and eat his Wheaties for his new job. He has decades of experience--he worked with Thrifty through 2002, then became head of risk management for 200-employee Valcourt Building Services--but Volkswagon of America is a higher gear. VW is the fourth largest automaker on the planet with more than 325,000 employees worldwide and 1,400 in the States. It has a global risk management department with input over the U.S. program, as well as a global insurance program with which certain U.S. coverages must be integrated. Meanwhile, the company is in the process of relocating its headquarters, placing a new plant somewhere stateside and gearing up for a big push into the U.S. market that will see it sell 1 million vehicles by 2018.
When asked about longer hours and more stress, Vassar grins. "It's going to be a challenge."
One that he's confident he can tackle and pin to the ground. He cited his experience working in auto fleet and in claims at Thrifty, which was only broadened with his work at Valcourt. At the building management company, he had to be ahead of the game. A lot of the company's projects involved men hanging off buildings--think window-washing--so when a claim drifted his way, it was bad. The goal was to prevent them, not deal with their aftermath.
With his experience and VW's expectations, his hiring is a "good marriage," Vassar said.
"They have made a commitment to risk management," he said. "They do view risk management from an enterprise standpoint."
Not to mention the automaker's dynamic and employee-oriented environment.
"I think they're a moving force in the United States. It's my goal to make a lifelong commitment to VW," he said. "I would love to finish my career with VW."
MATTHEW BRODSKY is senior editor/Web editor at Risk & Insurance®.
May 14, 2008
Copyright 2008© LRP Publications
Hide! Here Comes the Insurance Guy the #1 and #2 Insurance Liability book on Amazon.com
Hide! Here Comes the Insurance Guy takes a radically different approach to explaining risk management and business insurance. Hide! explains the insurance process, indentifies the players are and simplifies the terminology, using humor to make a mostly unpalatable subject easier to digest.
Today, the book is both the number one (paperback) and the number two (hardcover) bestsellers on the Amazon.com insurance liability book list. The paperback is also #2 on Amazon.com in the risk management category.
"It's exciting", says Vassar, "even those who are insurance novices learn a lot, and I'm amazed at how many folks find the book to be a joy to read.
"I mean, think about it; a funny yet authoritative book on insurance and risk management, two disciplines not known for their senses of humor. And the fact that these strategies can save them so much money once they crack the code is incredible."
Rick Vassar CPCU, ARM, AIS, ARM-P is the principal in The Vassar Group, LLC and Vice President of Risk Management for Valcourt Building Services.
The Vassar Group specializes in rent-a-risk manager services for emerging companies, and Mr. Vassar also conducts workshops on the risk management and insurance process. These workshops are eligible for up to eight insurance CE credits
Both books are available through the RIMS (Risk and Insurance Management Society) bookstore www.rims.org
How Do You Survive a 47 Story Fall? You Don't
You’ve seen those guys. They’re the ones who are hanging from the side of a building washing windows. You probably pay them very little mind, unless they have cordoned off the area below you where you usually go down and grab a smoke.
More often than not, you probably look up and wonder how anyone can wake up each morning and hang off buildings like that. I know I do. I am responsible for risk management and insurance for the largest commercial window cleaning company in the United States.
Each day, our company faces the fear that one of our guys will get severely injured. And while you perhaps think of these guys as an inconvenience, they are fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters.
Window cleaners are much like firefighters and policemen: a fraternity of the few, who know what they do is dangerous yet essential. Window cleaning is not only aesthetic; it also helps to extend the physical life of the building by cleaning off the elements that accumulate on surfaces, especially in urban areas.
As I sit here watching a window cleaner hanging just outside my eleventh floor office window, I am thinking about the window cleaner in New York who fell 47 stories from a swing scaffold and survived. His brother was killed, but somehow, Alcides Moreno lived. It is not exactly clear what happened that day in December, 2007, but after that swing scaffold hit the ground from 500 feet above, Alcides Moreno had survived and his brother Edgar had not, and one thing is absolutely clear: the survival and bright prognosis for recovery for Alcides Moreno is nothing short of a miracle.
Early indications are that it was human error, mechanical failure, structural failure, or a combination of all three. The reports indicate that the Morenos were not hooked up to a safety line, which would have saved them. There were new cables on the scaffold that may or may not have been properly installed. And it’s also possible that the scaffold was not properly anchored to the building.
It is also believed that this suspended scaffold’s design required that the occupant’s safety lines be attached to the scaffold instead of an independent safety line. Most suspended platform protocols call for safety lines to be hooked up to an independent line attached to the building.
Many buildings, especially the older ones, are not properly equipped to safely secure weight off the side of the roof. Oftentimes, window cleaners have to find innovative ways to secure their lines to their chairs or scaffolds to perform the work safely.
Sometimes, these anchor points are not structurally sound enough to hold the weight of the platform and its occupants.
What most people don’t know is that most buildings can be retrofitted with anchors that protect the structural integrity of the building while safely allowing work in areas that can only be accessed from above. Many property owners look at retrofitting as cost-prohibitive, but insurance cost savings over a relatively short period of time will more than cover the costs of anchor installation.
In 2004, I attended a safety training session for our company in Atlanta. Each crew not only practices safety techniques, but also trains on rescue scenarios. If something goes wrong 20, 30, or 40 stories up, crew members can only rely on each other, and these guys are the best.
When I joined this company, I had consistently stated that I would like to try a drop. But when the day came, even two stories seemed awfully high, so I decided not to ask to rappel down the side of the building.
One of the managers called my bluff. So I climbed up a very long ladder to the top of the two-story warehouse, and started to have second thoughts:
I’m an office guy. I don’t need to do this…
Then I looked down at the ladder and decided it would be a lot less stressful to go down by rope than to go back down that ladder.
So I went down by rope. I would prefer never to have to do that again. I probably will, though, because from 30 minutes of preparation, and the three to five minutes it took to slide down two stories, I came away with an incredible degree of respect and admiration for the people who do this every day, from heights much higher than I experienced.
They put their lives on the line for the noblest of causes – supporting their families. So, if their work interrupts your smoke break, remember this: if everyone does his or her job right, your smoking is a much riskier activity than window cleaning. While the survival of Alcides Moreno is a miracle, the death of Edgar Moreno is a reality that all window cleaners live with every day.
So, if you are a window cleaner, be careful out there. If you are a commercial property owner or manager, check to make sure your building is safe to work on.
Someone’s life might depend upon it.
Quinley Calls Vassar Book 'Top Risk Management Book of the Year'
The Envelope, please … the Top Risk Management Book of the Year …
By Kevin M. Quinley CPCU, ARM AIC, AIM, ARe
"Olly olly oxen free! Come out, come out, wherever you are!"
Reviewed by Kevin Quinley
Hide! Here Comes the Insurance Guy by Rick Vassar, iUniverse, 2006, 196 pp., $17.95
Somebody once said that a New York accent was the most effective form of birth control known to man. Others might nominate as an effective contraceptive any tendency to talk about insurance… or risk management, for that matter.
Author, risk manager and consultant Rick Vassar has penned an illuminating primer on insurance and risk management in his book, "Hide! Here Comes the Insurance Guy." The title is a take-off on the notion that, for most people, meeting with an insurance person or discussing coverage is as much fun as a root canal or proctological exam. The author – a CPCU and an ARM -- lives a dual existence. By day, he is a mild-mannered risk manager for a company in the Washington D.C. area. In his spare time, he writes and consults on risk management topics (check out http://www.vassargroup.com ). Vassar tries (successfully) to cushion the blow and counter the stereotype by presenting insurance and risk management principles in a straightforward way that can profit any business professional.
Part of his theme is that most companies have risks that are overseen by someone whose title is not "Risk Manager." Most companies do not have risk managers; you need to have a pretty big insurance budget to justify that as a full-time position. No company vies to be paying so much in insurance premium that they spotlight the problem by having a full-time individual to tend to it. Nevertheless, all companies have risks and need to manage it. For these risk managers without title or formal portfolio, Vassar's book – perhaps the best risk management book of the year even without that phrase in the title -- is an indispensable primer and guide. Reading and heeding his advice will save businesses much money, frustration and Excedrin-consumption.
Vassar divides his book into three main sections. Part I discusses business strategies to even the playing field between policyholders and insurance companies. Part II walks through the major basic forms of insurance coverage for most any business. Part III rounds out with a useful; glossary and index.
Vassar's target audience is likely not the Fortune 500 or Fortune 1000 risk pro who attends the annual RIMS Conference. There is no highfalutin discussion of enterprise risk management or views from 50,000 feet above ground level. If you are seeking information on Sarbanes-Oxley compliance or the risk management implications of global warming, look elsewhere. The storefront risk manager, though, will find a wellspring of effective tips and tricks between these covers.
Vassar's focus is practical and hands-on, leavened with a self-deprecating sense of humor. Did I say "humor"? Yes, though few comedy clubs are likely to feature an Open Mike night for insurance reps, Vassar takes the human antipathy toward insurance and turns it into a source of mirth and amusement. (Some end-of-chapter checklists would have been a nice addition to the text, but this is a minor quibble.)
So run -- but don't hide - and get your copy of "Hide! Here Comes the Insurance Guy." Get out from under the desk. Leave the closet and face your fears. Insurance and risk management may not be fun (though they are occasionally funny), but Rick Vassar has come as close to anyone in blending sharp wit with moneysaving risk management insights.
Kevin Quinley CPCU ARM is the author of over 500 published articles and nine books. His articles have appeared in publications including Business Insurance, The National Underwriter, Risk Management, Occupational Safety & Health, Best's Review, CPCU Journal, Insurance Settlement Journal, The Risk Report and For the Defense. He is the author of Time Management for Claim Professionals, Claim Management, The Quality Plan, Litigation Management and Winning Strategies for Negotiating Claims and Managing Product Liability Risks. His seventh book, Bulletproofing Your Medical Practice: Risk Management Strategies that Work, was published in October of 2000. His eighth book, Well-Adjusted: 185 Career Tips for Adjuster Success was published in mid-2001. The ninth book – coauthored with Don Schmidt -- Business at Risk: Risk Managing the Terrorist Threat was published in 2002.
Use The Holiday Season to Elevate your "Claims Game"!
Reprinted with permission from The Claims Coach Blog December 10, 2007
Use The Holiday Season to Elevate your "Claims Game"!
by Kevin M. Quinley CPCU, ARM AIC, AIM, ARE
Kevin has written over nene books and over 500 articles on various subjects including claims management, risk management and the insurance industry. He is known throughout the insurance industry as an expert in claims analysis and administration.
Christmas time is one time of year when I’m glad to be a claims person and not an underwriter. With so many insurance renewal dates at 12/31 or 1/1 on the calendar, the underwriters are at peak workload at this time of year, scrambling to address new and renewal business. Underwriters are besieged by the need for insurance quotes or brokers who want to cut deals. In fact, it is downright hard for underwriters to take much time off during the holiday season.
Not so for the claim folks...
If anything, our volume drops this time of year. There are likely many reasons for this. One may relate to the fact that we only handle product liability claims. If we were dealing with personal lines losses – autos or homeowners for example – December might be a busier time. In the world our claims department occupies, though – commercial liability – the folks at insured companies who report claims are often out on vacation themselves. Attorneys who generate much of the paper and activity on litigated cases are in a wind-down mode. Judges do not seem too keen to schedule mediations or trials during the Christmas season, though I have been in a couple of nail-biters during yuletide, worried that the jury was going to turn into a gaggle of twelve Santa Clauses.
For some claim departments, the holiday season marks a ramp-down of the pace of business. Less incoming mail arrives. The phone is quieter. Fewer emails and faxes intrude. (Your mileage may vary, again either due to the types of insurance you write or if you work for a TPA that gets overflow assignments.)
This can be an excellent time for the claim staff to invest time in activities that will boost their productivity and get them off to a running start the next year. For example:
• Purging old materials (both hard copy and files on hard drives) that are no longer needed
• Organizing one’s desk, drawers and reference material
• Writing out professional goals for the next year and embedding ticklers or reminders on the calendar to revisit progress on these periodically through the year
• Networking with other professionals that you had a hard time finding time for earlier in the year
Use any “lull” presented at the end of year to catch your breath, gather yourself, get organized and get focused on what you want to accomplish as a claim professional in 2008!
The Claims Coach may slide down the chimney and appear again before the end of the year but, in any event, he wishes all a happy and fun holiday season!!
FOR SMALL BUSINESSES, IMPLEMENTING RISK MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IS WORTH THE COST
BY MATTHEW BRODSKY
Reprinted from GO! Magazine - Inflight Magazine of Air Tran Airways, November 2007
Risk management is a hot topic with the nation’s biggest companies. Its practitioners are prime-time players on the ladder, reporting to CEOs and boards. Listen up, small businesses: You could stand to emulate the big boys and implement a risk management system of your own.
According to Rick Vassar, risk consultant and author of Hide Here Comes the Insurance Guy, a risk manager’s work permeates all levels of the organization. Put simply, risk management is knowing what obstacles could derail your business goals, and planning ways to avoid, minimize or just plain survive them. It’s as important for small companies as big ones, says Joy Gänder, owner of an eponymous consulting firm—yet small businesses often don’t give the practice the attention it deserves...
Instead, small businesses tend to relegate the task down into their organization, Gänder says. Or the very top person—the owner—gets stuck with it. The reason? They simply see risk management as insurance, a boring, confusing commodity that’s not worth the cost. “The average business owner can’t stand dealing with property/casualty insurance,” Gänder says.
Keith Pizer, co-owner of a New Jersey-based graphic design firm named 1 Trick Pony, got stuck with the job of buying insurance. He laughs about it now. “You don’t realize how many people you know in insurance until you need it,” he says.
Pizer’s broker helped him to get coverage that matches that of other companies of his size and in his industry. Gänder recommends this sort of comparison shopping for her clients.
She also can take it one step further by factoring in an owner’s risk appetite and balance sheet. If a client has good cash flow and can stomach having more on the line, Gänder might recommend raising deductibles for, say, auto coverage from $100 to $1,000. This increase means a decrease in premium.
But risk management is about more than just insurance. “Risk management is an ongoing process… and it involves a lot of common sense,” Gänder says.
Risk control is all about identifying dangers— called “exposures” in industry parlance—that can threaten business success. Th ink floods, tornadoes, fires. Think lawsuits from disgruntled clients or employees. Think employee injuries. You know your business. What can get in its way?
Figure out ways to eliminate, mitigate and/or finance these exposures. Then implement. Insurance is just one way. Risk control is another. Have a disaster preparedness plan. Review your employee handbook. Back up your servers off -site.
This all might sound complicated and costly, but it’s not. “The biggest misconception is that a risk management program is too expensive,” Vassar says.
Perry Ballard, proprietor of Ballard Safety Consulting, came to his risk-control methods, such as contract disclaimers, in part through his peers and from learning from others’ mistakes. He hasn’t had a disastrous lawsuit or other claim to date. Ballard also got advise from Vassar on how to set up his liability insurance. “You need someone to come in from the outside and look at your exposure,” Ballard says.
Of course, small companies might not be up for hiring a risk consultant. They can trust in their agents to steer them right, or tap into the wealth of risk resources on the internet, including the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, FEMA, the Insurance Information Institute and the Small Business Association.
In the end, all successful small companies get to the point where they have to do something about risk. “As they grow, most small businesses realize that they need to manage their insurance program,”
Vassar says. “Those who make that commitment continue to grow; those who don’t usually remain small or don’t survive at all.”
RISK MANAGEMENT PRACTICES TO REMEMBER
• Take it seriously. Hand the responsibility to an important go-getter. “It’s helpful to elevate risk management and give it more visibility,” consultant Joy Gänder says.
• Know your insurance policy. Compare yours with similar companies. Ensure your coverage is based on replacement costs for damaged items, not book values. Consider coverage for exposures particular to you—i.e. flood coverage near the coast or business interruption for lost income.
• Let your insurer know you. Perry Ballard, a West Virginia business owner, says he shares all his loss-control techniques with insurers. They like that.
• Claims happen, and when they do, deal with them. Consultant Rick Vassar says companies fail to report claims on time or give insurers enough information, which increases insurers’ costs—and they don’t like that.
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 6:00 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Reprinted from GO! Magazine - Inflight Magazine of Air Tran Airways, November 2007
Risk management is a hot topic with the nation’s biggest companies. Its practitioners are prime-time players on the ladder, reporting to CEOs and boards. Listen up, small businesses: You could stand to emulate the big boys and implement a risk management system of your own.
According to Rick Vassar, risk consultant and author of Hide Here Comes the Insurance Guy, a risk manager’s work permeates all levels of the organization. Put simply, risk management is knowing what obstacles could derail your business goals, and planning ways to avoid, minimize or just plain survive them. It’s as important for small companies as big ones, says Joy Gänder, owner of an eponymous consulting firm—yet small businesses often don’t give the practice the attention it deserves...
Instead, small businesses tend to relegate the task down into their organization, Gänder says. Or the very top person—the owner—gets stuck with it. The reason? They simply see risk management as insurance, a boring, confusing commodity that’s not worth the cost. “The average business owner can’t stand dealing with property/casualty insurance,” Gänder says.
Keith Pizer, co-owner of a New Jersey-based graphic design firm named 1 Trick Pony, got stuck with the job of buying insurance. He laughs about it now. “You don’t realize how many people you know in insurance until you need it,” he says.
Pizer’s broker helped him to get coverage that matches that of other companies of his size and in his industry. Gänder recommends this sort of comparison shopping for her clients.
She also can take it one step further by factoring in an owner’s risk appetite and balance sheet. If a client has good cash flow and can stomach having more on the line, Gänder might recommend raising deductibles for, say, auto coverage from $100 to $1,000. This increase means a decrease in premium.
But risk management is about more than just insurance. “Risk management is an ongoing process… and it involves a lot of common sense,” Gänder says.
Risk control is all about identifying dangers— called “exposures” in industry parlance—that can threaten business success. Th ink floods, tornadoes, fires. Think lawsuits from disgruntled clients or employees. Think employee injuries. You know your business. What can get in its way?
Figure out ways to eliminate, mitigate and/or finance these exposures. Then implement. Insurance is just one way. Risk control is another. Have a disaster preparedness plan. Review your employee handbook. Back up your servers off -site.
This all might sound complicated and costly, but it’s not. “The biggest misconception is that a risk management program is too expensive,” Vassar says.
Perry Ballard, proprietor of Ballard Safety Consulting, came to his risk-control methods, such as contract disclaimers, in part through his peers and from learning from others’ mistakes. He hasn’t had a disastrous lawsuit or other claim to date. Ballard also got advise from Vassar on how to set up his liability insurance. “You need someone to come in from the outside and look at your exposure,” Ballard says.
Of course, small companies might not be up for hiring a risk consultant. They can trust in their agents to steer them right, or tap into the wealth of risk resources on the internet, including the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, FEMA, the Insurance Information Institute and the Small Business Association.
In the end, all successful small companies get to the point where they have to do something about risk. “As they grow, most small businesses realize that they need to manage their insurance program,”
Vassar says. “Those who make that commitment continue to grow; those who don’t usually remain small or don’t survive at all.”
RISK MANAGEMENT PRACTICES TO REMEMBER
• Take it seriously. Hand the responsibility to an important go-getter. “It’s helpful to elevate risk management and give it more visibility,” consultant Joy Gänder says.
• Know your insurance policy. Compare yours with similar companies. Ensure your coverage is based on replacement costs for damaged items, not book values. Consider coverage for exposures particular to you—i.e. flood coverage near the coast or business interruption for lost income.
• Let your insurer know you. Perry Ballard, a West Virginia business owner, says he shares all his loss-control techniques with insurers. They like that.
• Claims happen, and when they do, deal with them. Consultant Rick Vassar says companies fail to report claims on time or give insurers enough information, which increases insurers’ costs—and they don’t like that.
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 6:00 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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