Key man risk in product disclosure management

In the majority of companies that we speak to, there is only one person who is across all the ins and outs of the PDSs. They have been there for some time (10, 15 years isn’t unheard of!) and run a tight roll process. They get the job done with a minimum of fuss. Here’s the issue though, what if they aren’t there when a PDS needs to be updated?

 To my mind, this is a serious case of key man risk.

It’s easy to think of high profile executives when considering risk management, but in reality, most large companies would continue on just fine, at least for a while. Whereas, if your PDS specialist isn’t there, life can get very exciting* very quickly.

  So what to do about it? To my mind you have two options – train a second person as a back-up, or use a technology solution. Unfortunately there are numerous issues with the second person option. You need to decide who it’s going to be, they need training, they need to spend time with the PDS specialist (when likely neither of them have any spare time). And then at the end of the process, they might not be called on for years, by which time either things have changed, or they don’t remember the details, or both!

Instead, we believe technology is a much better option.

Technology doesn’t ‘forget’ what you’ve told it, and if it’s set up well, it will mirror the PDS specialist’s processes, so a new person can slot in with relative ease if required. Further, all the little changes to every piece of wording will be tracked, as well as notes/files that back up why any particular change was made. With this in place, your key person is not only more effective, but you’ve reduced a significant risk at the same time.

To learn more about how Mayflower can support you to manage key man risk and improve efficiencies, visit http://www.mayflower.com.au/pds-management/

*Not the good sort of exciting

Without the right supports in place, managing the PDS process can feel like walking across a tightrope.