RISKWORLD 2024 Keynote Peter Diamandis

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The Power of Storytelling and Embracing Risks

Exploring how storytelling influences decision-making and the importance of taking risks in innovation across various industries, with a focus on leveraging technology for prevention rather than just compensation.

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Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.

Justin interviews guest RISKWORLD 2024 Keynote Peter Diamandis about many intriguing topics, starting with Peter's book, Abundance, Peter's career and professional history as it relates to risk management, the purpose and importance of storytelling, and positivity. Peter shares the key for risk professionals to become great organizational leaders: it's to depend analytically on the data! Peter shares his excitement about his RISKWORLD 2024 Opening Keynote on May 6th, what he will present, and how he will engage the audience.

Listen in for wisdom on risk and abundance.

Key Takeaways:

[:01] About RIMS and RIMScast.

[:14] Public registration for RISKWORLD 2024 is now open. Explore infinite opportunities with RIMS from May 5th through May 8th, 2024, in San Diego, California. Register at RIMS.org/riskworld. Be thankful that it's a leap year! Advance Registration rates end on February 29th, 2024.

[:38] About today's episode of RIMScast. Our topic is risk and innovation, with RISKWORLD 2024 Opening Keynote Peter Diamandis.

[1:01] The RIMS-CRMP is the only competency-based risk management credential. That matters because earning the certification shows employers and recruiters that you have the skills necessary to manage risk and create value for your organization. [1:17] Several Exam Prep virtual workshops are coming up. On March 19th and 20th, this two-day course will be presented with PARIMA. The next RIMS-CRMP-FED Exam Prep Virtual Workshop will be held from April 2nd through the 4th and led by Joe Mayo. Visit the certification page on RIMS.org for more information. A link is in these show notes.

[1:47] If there is a full group of employees in your organization who should earn the RIMS-CRMP, visit RIMS.org/webinars and register for the complimentary webinar, How Deloitte Leveraged the RIMS-CRMP: A Fireside Chat. A link is on this episode's show notes.

[2:06] We will have leaders from the RIMS-CRMP Commission as well as leaders from Deloitte, who will speak to why they supported several of their employees in earning the RIMS-CRMP. It will be a relaxed, informational session and a lot of fun. Mark your calendars for March 15th and register!

[2:26] On March 20th at 9:00 a.m., Eastern, we have another informational session about Recertification: Keep Your RIMS-CRMP Active. I will be hosting that session, along with RIMS VP of Professional Development, Denise Osorio. If you have the CRMP and you don't want the credits to lapse, find out how to keep it active! The link is in the notes.

[2:53] We are looking forward to RISKWORLD 2024 in sunny San Diego, California, from May 5th through May 8th, 2024. Public registration is open. Register today at RIMS.org/RISKWORLD and the link in this episode's show notes. Early registration rates are available through February 29th, 2024, brought to you by RIMS and leap year!

[3:19] I'm so pleased to present an interview with our RISKWORLD 2024 Opening Keynote Speaker, Peter Diamandis. He's a successful entrepreneur several times over, a thought leader, and a New York Times best-selling author of four books, including Abundance: The Future is Better than You Think.

[3:39] Peter Diamandis was named by Fortune as one of the world's 50 great leaders. He is also the Founder and Executive Chairman of the XPrize Foundation, which leads the world in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions. He is also the Executive Founder of Singularity University.

[3:55] Peter Diamandis has a lot of experience with risk and risk professionals. He's going to be one of the standout opening keynote speakers in RISKWORLD history. We'll hear about his risk philosophy, what it will take for risk professionals to become organizational leaders, and a preview of his May 6th RISKWORLD 2024 Keynote.

[4:19] Peter Diamandis, welcome to RIMScast! Peter has aerospace engineering, molecular genetics, and medical degrees from MIT and Harvard. He started numerous companies in the space world and the exponential technologies world. For the last decade, his focus has been on longevity, adding decades of health to a person's life.

[5:33] Peter has written several books he's proud of, focused on optimism and abundance. Abundance: The Future is Better than You Think, Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World, The Future is Faster Than You Think, a few books on longevity, and exponential organizations.

[5:59] Peter has a large venture fund, Bold Capital, which has six or seven hundred million dollars. He's investing heavily in AI and longevity. A lot of his work is helping people to change their mindset, which is one of the most important and relevant things we can talk about in the realm of risk. Peter asks you to consider your mindset.

[6:31] Imagine the most extraordinary leader on the planet, whomever you consider that to be. Ask yourself what got them there. Was it the money they had, their friends, technology, or was it their mindset? Peter posits that their mindset is what enabled them to be such an extraordinary leader and success.

[6:58] The next question is what mindset do you have, where does it come from, and what mindset do you need for the decade ahead in this period of extraordinary accelerating exponential change?

[7:41] There are a multitude of risks on the horizon at all times. Pandemics have been and will continue to be a global risk. We have risks on that scale from asteroid impacts. We have risks that are mounting in the realm of AI. We have risks from manmade biological disruptions.

[8:26] People don't take into account the accelerating countervailing forces. We live in a day when individuals can come up with new strategies and technologies to combat problems. Individuals can also cause problems.

[9:20] Peter defines entrepreneurs as individuals who find juicy problems and solve them and the more entrepreneurs empowered with more powerful technologies, the more problems get knocked down. Then we are left with only first-world problems.

[10:02] The fundamental problem is, humans have a hard time truly judging risk accurately. The amygdala scans all of our sensory data. If it sees something that's potentially dangerous, it puts you on "red alert." It raises your blood pressure, narrows your pupils, and gets you ready for your fight-or-flight reaction.

[10:58] We tend to be easily tipped into fight-or-flight even though the chances of real danger are orders of magnitude lower. Peter describes loss of life through the violence of warfare or crime, through time. People would think from the news that we are living in the most dangerous time in history but we are living in the most peaceful time in history.

[11:46] The Middle Ages were disastrous. We romanticize the past. Today, your chance of dying from a violent act is minuscule compared to what it used to be.

[12:05] RIMS plug time! RIMS Virtual Workshops: Visit RIMS.org/virtualworkshops to see the full calendar. On March 6th and 7th, our friend Elise Farnham hosts Applying and Integrating ERM. On March 12th and 13th, former RIMS president Chris Mandel hosts, Captives as an Alternate Risk Financing Technique.

[12:31] Information about these workshops and others is on the RIMS Virtual Workshops page and a link to the full calendar is in this episode's notes.

[12:39] On February 29th, Hub International sponsors Ready for Tomorrow: Protecting Your Profits in the Property Market. On March 7th, in celebration of International Women's Day, Origami Risk leads the session Women of Risk & Compliance: Leading & Learning One Step at a Time.

[13:01] Visit RIMS.org/Webinars to learn more about these webinars and to register! Links are in the show notes. Webinar registration is complimentary for RIMS members.

[13:14] Quick shout-out to our friends at the Spencer Educational Foundation, which funds the education of next-generation risk management and insurance talent. Spencer's scholarship program is open but coming to a close on March 1st for Ph.D. applicants.

[13:29] Students and risk management and insurance faculty with interest can visit Spencered.org for additional details.

[13:54] Leading risk managers who are data-driven decision-makers would make good organizational leaders. Peter believes that depending on the human "gut" is no longer viable. Gut feelings based on years of experience are irrelevant. What is important is what the data shows.

[14:47] Peter states that risk managers who can gather the data, analyze it, and make data-driven decisions are going to be great leaders.

[15:12] Storytelling is how we convey means and ideas. We evolved as humans to tell stories and receive stories around the campfire. As long as humans are involved in a decision process, which they will be less and less in the future, an emotional connection is going to sway an individual. Great stories connect you with individuals.

[15:56] If you tell a great story and connect with a person emotionally, you can sway them pro or con, yes or no, on the decision that you want. So storytelling is fundamental. All day long, Peter seeks investments. Investments are selected by an investment committee that believes in the entrepreneur and the company and what they're doing.

[16:33] When you're trying to raise money, it's super important to tell a great story about "Why me? Why this? And why now?" The data will sway at least equally, if not more but today, as flesh and blood, hearts and minds, storytelling is still critically important, whether you are selling or being sold.

[17:23] Peter is the opening keynote speaker at RISKWORLD 2024 on Monday, May 6th in San Diego, California. Peter says the world of risk assessment, risk balancing, and risk-taking is more important than ever before. Peter's job is to tell stories to the audience to help them understand the role they have to play.

[17:44] Doing anything big and bold in the world is risky. If we take the risk out of everything, then we're stuck, stagnant, and moving backward. There needs to be a way that entrepreneurs, companies, and even governments, can take risks that have the upside potential to transform society for the better.

[18:14] Peter wants to infect people with the positivity of this increasing world of abundance. A key area Peter wants to hit is that the world is getting better; we need to take risks to transform insurance. Fire insurance should prevent fires. Health insurance should keep you healthy. Life insurance should keep you alive a lot longer.

[19:17] The most exciting thing about all these exponential technologies is the reinventing of business models. How do we reinvent business models not only to financially protect against the risk but also to use technology to remove the risk, if at all possible, and change the way we think about all these areas?

[20:06] Peter loves Q&A. The more questions, the better. He wants to make several points. First, he wants people to see the data that the world has been improving at an extraordinary rate in terms of increased access to food, water, healthcare, and education; with reduced child mortality rates, maternal mortality rates, and violence.

[20:41] When you look at the numbers, they're awesome. The question becomes … why is the world getting better on all these different dimensions? … It's not that we're getting smarter or that we have better politicians; it's the impact of technology. Peter wants to share that to begin. The next point is to talk about what's going on in the meta trends.

[21:03] Meta trends are the forces that are heading our way and changing everything. The meta trend in energy is from whale oil 100 years ago to fusion energy in the near term; looking at reinventing transport with flying cars and autonomous cars; and humanoid robots coming.

[21:23] Looking at longevity and the ability to add 10 to 30 healthy years to your life, and how that will impact society. Where we are with AI today and where it's going; what are the challenges? How do we think about these challenges? Everything we've ever known is about to change.

[22:01] Artificial intelligence, in its current use and capabilities and how fast it's evolving, and where it's going needs to be a conversation in your board room, at your dinner table, and with your children, everywhere!

[22:28] Peter's parting words: "I think the world of risk is about to be transformed and it's going to be transformed by exponential technologies, sensors, networks, AI, robotics, all of these areas; AR, VR, and blockchain, and I want to show you what's possible today and where these technologies are taking us in the next two to five years. It's awesome!"

[22:49] "It's an amazing time to be alive and I think that business models, companies, and the future of the entire risk industry are going to be refined and transformed. So that's our conversation; I'm looking forward to it!"

[23:07] Thank you so much, Peter Diamandis! Looking forward to seeing you!

[23:11] Special thanks to Peter Diamandis for joining us and giving us a preview of his RISKWORLD 2024 Keynote which will be on Monday, May 6th.

[23:19] There's still time to get the early bird registration rate for RISKWORLD through February 29th. Visit RIMS.org/riskworld and register there. Peter's opening Keynote is one of the many memorable presentations we'll be experiencing at RISKWORLD 2024.

[23:36] Go to the App Store and download the RIMS App. This is an exclusive members-only benefit with all sorts of RIMS resources and coverage. Everybody loves the RIMS App!

[24:02] You can sponsor a RIMScast episode for this, our weekly show, or a dedicated episode. Links to sponsored episodes are in our show notes. RIMScast has a global audience of risk professionals, legal professionals, students, business leaders, C-Suite executives, and more. Let's collaborate! Contact pd@rims.org for more information.

[34:44] Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information.

[25:00] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today's risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more.

[25:15] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com, and check out the blog at RiskManagementMonitor.com. Justin Smulison is Business Content Manager at RIMS. You can email Justin at Content@RIMS.org.

[25:36] Thank you for your continued support and engagement on social media channels! We appreciate all your kind words. Listen every week! Stay safe!

Mentioned in this Episode:

RISKWORLD 2024 — San Diego, CA | May 5–8, 2024

NEW FOR MEMBERS! RIMS Mobile App

Spencer Educational Foundation

Spencer Educational Foundation — Grants Page

RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP)

RIMS-CRMP Virtual Workshops

2024 International Risk Manager Survey conducted by FERMA in partnership with PwC FERMA

Diamandis.com

RIMS Webinars:

Ready for Tomorrow: Protecting Your Profits in the Property Market | Sponsored by Hub International | Feb. 29, 2024

Women of Risk & Compliance: Leading & Learning One Step at a Time | Sponsored by Origami Risk | March 7, 2024