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KEY ISSUES FOR INSURANCE CHIEF EXECUTIVES

The International Insurance Society, which recently met in Vienna, conducts a survey each year of participants at its meetings to ascertain the issues that are concerning insurance executives around the world. We ask participants to rank their top three concerns out of a field of twelve issues. This information helps us build timely programs that appeal to executives and keeps us in tune with major trends in the industry.

In Vienna, the responses were tabulated by region of the world:

• Europe (44)
• US/Canada (36)
• Asia/Australia (24)
• Latin America (5)
• Middle East/Africa (6)
• Total Responses: 115
• Total Participants: 534
• Percent Response: 21.5%

This year, the concerns rated number one most often from all survey participants were:

• Meeting Customer Demands
• Competing Amid Consolidation and Concentration
• Managing Capital and Risk
• Keeping Talent Suitable for Today's Markets

Top rated responses mentioned most often (either No. l, 2 or 3) were:

• Managing Capital and Risk
• Keeping Talent Suitable for Today's Markets
• Competing Amid Consolidation and Concentration
• Meeting Changing Customer Demands

Last year, the same survey produced these three top concerns: technology and e-commerce, retaining and acquiring talent, and rapidly changing markets, products and services.

The most notable change since last year was that technology and e-commerce were not among the leading concerns. This could reflect the mixed success of e-commerce and the melt-down in the market for high technology. We believe that utilizing technology as a cost reducer and tool to cut costs and serve customers is still a high concern for chief executives but e-commerce is neither the threat nor the priority it once was.

The newest top issues are Meeting Customer Demands and Managing Capital and Risk. The old model of building products and finding buyers for them is dead. In its place is the new model of building customer relationships and finding ways to add value to them. Further, there is a growing attention to methods to identify the customers of greatest value to the company and find ways to market to that customer profile. And the new model requires a new kind of executive leadership that is adept at blending cultures and Finding and Retaining Talent, also a top concern this year as well as last.

Allocation of capital and risk management is a new top topic to appear in our surveys. We believe the questions before our participants are: Where to best allocate capital? How to manage risk for organizations and customer alike? What are the different ways to allocate capital to create markets that didn't exist before?

Let us know your concerns about the issues affecting your business and we hope you'll join us at our next seminar in Singapore, July 14-17, 2002. For more information, look at our website for Singapore information.

Patrick Kenny
President and Chief Executive Officer
www.IISOnline.org