the insurance industry and risk managers are poised to ensure the future
by Teresa Chan What kind of phone did you have ten years ago, in 2010? Could it warn you of virus exposure, allow you to remotely secure your home, or enable a virtual underwriting of your business for property insurance? Within ten years, these capabilities will be obsolete and surpassed by virtually endless possibilities: selfdriving cars, private excursions into space, and even apps that predict and mitigate health problems in your future. Risk management professionals support the enterprises that will lead these advancements, and the insurance industry will be their partner in making it happen. Insurers are always in the search for first-in-market innovations and versatile strategic solutions that can impact entire industries. Some of the key elements for success are a concerted corporate-wide effort, systematic outreach to clients and business partners to generate a pipeline, and critically, timeliness. While working in niche market development, I had the unique opportunity to launch the first personal and corporate identity theft products, build businesses for struggling communities, help secure financing for solar, wind, waste-to-energy, and biofuel projects, and create digital insurance platforms. However, risk profiles constantly change and even ground-breaking solutions can quickly become obsolete. The fear of personal and corporate identity theft has been trivialized by the consequences of cyber-attack. As the reliance on and reliability of renewable energy grew, the responsibility of sustainability relative to environmental, social, and governance factors expanded beyond the clean energy producers who were insured. Traditional sales and marketing are no match for data analytics and machine learning. As evidenced by the pace at which technology has evolved over just the past 10 years, change takes place much faster now than it did before. As a result, risk management professionals and insurance providers must stay ahead of the curve by (1) increasing collaboration between stakeholders, including risk managers, providers, and intermediaries and (2) investing in human capital that is prepared to lead, facilitate, and foster innovation. COVID-19’s reach is deeper in impact and broader in scope than anything we have experienced in modern times. As a result of the necessity for stakeholders to regroup and reposition themselves, there are opportunities to accelerate change and innovation together as we move forward. • Insurance providers should continue to deepen understanding of their insureds’ businesses and motivate them to be more tactically prepared to weather seemingly inevitable future COVID-like situations.
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Intelligent Risk - July 2020
