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Taking care: Kabelo Letlebes job is to manage business risk at Medscheme.
What does your job entail?
In the health-care sector a considerable amount of time is spent in planning the risk process. In essence, my day-to-day job is ensuring a successful rollout of the risk management process and making sure the business complies with the risk management requirements.
What is your background and what qualifications did you acquire to prepare you for the job?
Risk management is my second career. I initially studied public relations management (I hold a B Tech degree in public relations management) and in 2007 I enrolled to do a post-graduate diploma in business administration through the Gordon Institute of Business Science.
Since then I have acquired specialised qualifications in risk management.
I was also mentored into the role by Rayelene Govender, my former colleague.
Describe a typical day
I am generally involved in risk assessment of one or more areas of the business, monitoring key risk indicators and implementing risk mitigation actions. I report and alert senior management to any potential risk.
What are some of the most challenging aspects of the job?
The biggest challenge is entrenching the risk-management culture at all levels of the organisation. Fortunately, there is a buy-in of the risk management process in Medscheme, and management is actively involved in the process.
What are the growth opportunities in this position?
There are many growth opportunities in the risk sector and there is a growing demand for risk specialists. Risk management is also increasingly being seen as a crucial management tool that proactively identifies what could go wrong or what could prevent a business from achieving its goals.
It is also possible to specialise in risk disciplines such as operational, compliance, insurance and so on.
What sort of personality do you need to do this job?
A risk manager must have good analytical abilities, attention to detail and be methodical as well as persistent as they have to deal with different personality types.
What also helps is the ability to think strategically, see the bigger picture, but at the same time be able to bed down details.
A word of advice for someone wanting to enter this industry?
A good starting point would be to enrol for credible risk management courses facilitated by the Institute of Risk Management SA.
This is important in keeping abreast with developments in this sector and being at the cutting edge of developments in this industry.
It also helps to get a mentor who is working in this discipline.
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