Beyond the Policy: Holistic Risk Management in the Masai Mara

Last week I had the privilege of travelling to the Masai Mara to meet with a long-standing JWS client who operates safari lodges around Eastern and Southern Africa. The client had pulled together a number of people in the risk management value chain – their internal risk management committee, their senior management, their brokers as well as underwriters and internal and external legal counsel. We gathered in a tent on the banks of the Mara River for their annual risk review meeting.

What stood out immediately was the client’s commitment to risk management. Their incident reporting culture is disciplined and transparent. Staff are trained to report minor slips and falls to major accidents which are documented and then analysed and observed by the risk management committee. One particularly interesting insight that emerged from the data was that incidents involving slips and falls have increased markedly year on year compared to five years ago. One theory was more elderly travellers, but the mostly likely culprit is guests walking whilst looking at their phones. Phones also played a role in some of the more serious incidents, with people wanting to capture that Instagram moment close to animals, or not paying attention to safety briefings.

The client does not shy away from sharing this data with their broker and insurers. That openness is critical. When clients are transparent about their accident experience or trends, even unfavourable ones, it builds trust and enables underwriters to properly assess, price and support the risk. Insurance works best when there are no surprises and when everyone understands the true exposure.

The sessions were further strengthened by the involvement of both internal and external legal counsel. The legal and insurance professions are closely intertwined, but still separate. We often get asked to review liability waivers, or what a client’s liability is if they do this or that. These questions may often be better answered by legal counsel, and I felt their input was particularly invaluable not just in discussing claims defensibility but in shaping protocols and stress-testing scenarios. Too often, legal teams are only engaged after something has gone wrong. Here, they were part of proactive risk management discussions, which elevated the entire conversation immensely.

The risk review extended beyond the obvious property and public liability. We reviewed construction risks from ongoing lodge upgrades, cyber vulnerabilities in booking and payment systems, and management liability considerations. Some gaps in cover were even picked up and addressed immediately. For safari lodges and more generally in any complex operations, risk is multi-dimensional and it pays to think more holistically about the operation. It’s not that you have to insure against all of it but good governance and risk management practice to think about other angles of risk, discuss the likelihood and severity of a loss stemming from it, and decide collectively if it’s something the company needs to insure against.

There was of course time for evening game drive and some team-building. Bringing together insurers, brokers, lawyers and the client in one place fosters relationships that cannot be achieved over email. We really appreciated the initiative of the client to get everyone together. All to often there’s a perception that insurance is an “us against them” dynamic. In truth, it’s meant to be a partnership between the insured and the insurers, on the same team and sharing the exposure. The insurers are there to pay claims and support the client’s business. When the unforeseen happens, it’s never intentional, and the best outcomes are achieved when everyone already knows each other, is open with each other and is aligned in how to respond.