My Wish for the Future of Our Business
As I enter the end of my career I look at the young people I work with and I wonder what this business will be like for them. Insurance is the only real work I have known and all things considered it has been very good to me. I’m not sure this business will be the same for them or the rest of the young people who join in the future. It has transitioned from a people business to a profit at all costs business.
Please understand I am not adverse to profit, it is the purpose of business. I am against profit at all cost. Insurance, like so many other businesses today, has lost its moral compass. Rather than work hard to find solutions to problems and issues, the current solution is to just walk away from the problem and leave it for someone else to figure out or deal with. I can’t believe with all the talent and knowledge that exists in our industry we can’t develop viable solutions to the problems that exist today. Unfortunately, finding solutions takes time and money and does not fit the model of an industry where many are only interested in easy, short term profit.
In order to get my AINS designation I had to take an ethics course and is my nature I joked about it. However, moral and ethical behaviors are not a joke. They are the foundation of any successful business that cares about the people that work for them as well as the people and businesses that are their customers.
Currently too many financial institutions, including insurance companies, are operating under a profit at all cost credo. This is sad commentary on business today and highlights weak leadership operating without moral fortitude and willing in some situations to exhibit unethical and in some extreme cases even criminal conduct. The funny thing is in our business you regularly hear companies talk about relationship but any relationship that existed or may exist in the future goes right out the door if profit, especially short term profit, is in jeopardy. As an industry we are faced with many challenges:
• Climate changes that result in catastrophic weather related losses affecting the profitability of property insurance.
• We are faced with an aging employee base, soon to retire, without enough young people to replace them.
• We are challenged by supporting diversity in the agency force that will allow us to provide a diverse consumer base with professionals that are multi-lingual and understand their cultural differences.
• Technological advances that may mean cars that drive themselves in the future and currently allow for usage based auto insurance as well as highly refined underwriting selection.
• The increased risk associated with safely storing important information and securely transmitting that information over the internet.
• Consumers who have been brainwashed into believing that a highly personalized and important product like insurance is merely a commodity to be purchased based primarily on price.
• The inflexibility of our system to attract and support young professionals who want to be entrepreneurs, owning and operating their own business.
• Laws and regulations that make it more complicated to do business and add to overhead.
• The conservative nature of insurance coupled with the limited innovation of the products we sell and the services we provide.
I’m sure you can think of other challenges I haven’t listed. The point is the world around us is changing rapidly and we have to change rapidly as well. We also need strong leaders in every area of our business that are willing to balance profit with people. Decisions have to be made on what is right for both. Those same leaders have to have the moral fortitude to find solutions to problems that work for all concerned and not just run away when things get complicated or costly.
I would love to see the insurance business truly be a relationship business. The root word in relationship is relation and the definition is: the state of being mutually or reciprocally interested (as in social or commercial matters). Companies and agents need to have a relationship meant to support and protect each other. They also both need to have a relationship with the consumers they protect with their products.
The relationship I mentioned is not some pipe dream and actually existed in years past. The type of moral and ethical leadership I outlined is also very real and possible but requires leaders who stand up for principles and are always looking for the solution that is best for all concerned. Decisions of this type aren’t easily made and require hard work and strength of character.
This is the future that a hope for my young colleagues and those that follow. There are those that will say that what I am hoping for is far too altruistic and doesn’t occur in business. I don’t believe that and am not willing to accept it. It is possible in any situation; the real issue is a willingness to compromise by all parties with the goal being the best situation for all concerned.
