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Sessions
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Monday, April 6
Shift Your Energy and Shift Your Results
As current market conditions, a weak economy and shrinking investment income threaten profits, the need to get more out of people, grow profitably and increase customer loyalty looms large. This session will share a new way to successfully meet these challenges. During the course of the presentation, attendees will learn how their organizational energy impacts performance and how a five percent increase in anabolic (positive) energy results in a 20 percent increase in financial success, a 12 percent improvement in worker engagement, and 16 percent increase in productivity. Attendees will also learn how to analyze and raise their organizational energy level to produce better bottom-line results.
Executive Insights Panel
During this fast-paced, energetic and interactive discussion, industry leaders will offer their 30,000- foot view on the impact of the new administration on the insurance industry, the soft market, customer service, blogging, going Green, and other topics that will be explored in more depth in later sessions. This session will provide attendees the opportunity to hear from and ask questions of some of the best minds in the industry.
Insurance Distribution: Driving Value with New Strategies and Analytics
Property casualty insurers must drive increasing production from their agency networks in a marketplace that is flat to declining. This session will recap the distribution challenges and opportunities facing insurers, and discuss innovative, tactical and strategic approaches to better understand and manage the whole of the distribution challenge. Specific discussion topics will include a marketdisciplined, outside-in approach to understanding the producer marketplace, including agency segmentation; understanding the economics of producer/agency relationships beyond underwriting gains and losses – e.g., the overall costto- serve and benefit of production; and the power of data as a strategic asset to informed decision-making.
Going Green for Marketers
A relatively new concept in the business arena, sustainability is considered the 21st century business paradigm, as well as the price of entry for businesses looking to compete in the long run. During this presentation, learn how the Green movement is impacting the marketplace and how businesses are striving to meet growing consumer demand for eco-friendly products and services. Will this demand trickle down to the insurance industry? An answer to this question as well as ways to frame environmental messages without falling into the trap of “Green washing” will be discussed.
Insurance Challenges of Construction Defect: History and Common Causes
Construction defect is an evolving underwriting issue that has the potential to impact all types of contractors. The smallest subcontractor may be just as exposed as the largest general contractor or developer. This session will discuss the current state of residential construction defect. It will review the history and common causes of construction defect insurance challenges. High profile states and classes will be reviewed along with the reasons why they are considered high profile. Common causes of loss, coverage issues, and underwriting techniques will also be reviewed.
The Impact of Disparate Impact Allegations on Underwriting
Over the last decade insurers have been increasingly confronted with class action lawsuits alleging a disparate and unfairly discriminatory impact on protected minorities and low-income communities. This session will define unfair discrimination as historically applied in insurance regulation and will define disparate impact as historically applied by the courts in a variety of employment and housing cases. Actual insurance case studies will be used to explain why the application of the disparate impact concept to insurance could lead to the banning of the most important risk factors used in underwriting. The implications to a competitive insurance market with multiple providers will surprise you.
Using the Science of Influence to Improve the Art of Persuasion
It is through influence that we generate and manage change. The process can be employed to foster growth and to move people away from negative choices and in more positive directions, thereby creating the conditions for new change opportunities. Or, it can be used clumsily, reducing the chance for genuine movement and, in the worst of cases, boomeranging into conflict and resentment. In this presentation, Dan Norris will describe the six universal principles of influence – those so powerful that they generate desirable change in the widest range of circumstances.
Current Topics in Marketing
Don’t have your MBA? Then you won’t want to miss this session which will feature that level of conversation. Join us during this custom-designed program led by a University of Texas marketing professor and a marketing consultant and author with more than 35 years of experience between them. They’ve identified current marketing topics that impact you, including developing a brand, customer lifetime value, and customer retention and loyalty. Hear real examples of successful marketing initiatives from other industries as well.
Strategies for Re-evaluating Geographical Location
By not updating or re-thinking their territories, too many insurers are incorrectly evaluating risks and overlooking competitive opportunities. This session will cover how geographical location, one of the most significant and overlooked rating variables, can help redefine territories for a competitive boost. It will focus on how to develop better rating territories and develop target underwriting and marketing strategies in conjunction with win/loss competitor analyses on a more refined (e.g., ZIP code) basis.
Underwriting Tools for Thriving in Tough Times
With underwriting market challenges and a corresponding tough economy, customers have concerns and the industry is experiencing severely reduced revenues and retentions. The potential for extreme behaviors at these times calls for subtle skills to influence recommendations, and still maintain good relations. This session will take a financial and business look at the soft market and discuss value and enhancing “customer” relationships. We will also discuss impacts on preferred sources of revenue, hit rates, retention vs. new business and expansion opportunities – all geared to help participants cope more effectively. Attendees will be able to take away tools and techniques to share with their companies.
When Speed Really Matters… Build, Buy or Outsource?
More than two-thirds of insurance executives feel that “speed to market” is the major focus of their organizations. While the need for speed is a common theme, property casualty insurance carriers are coming up with a variety of answers to the ageold question: build, buy or outsource? In an era of growth through acquisitions, expansions into new states and new lines of business, insurance must balance speed to market with limitations of their current technology environments and determine how much they need to invest – and how quickly. This session will explore how several carriers have used different approaches to meet their speed-tomarket needs.
Tuesday, April 7
Creating a Culture of Customer Service
A “rare breed” when it comes to developing leaders and customer service initiatives, Jason Young was a key driver in creating and developing Southwest Airlines’ innovative training programs for its successful leadership and customer service culture that have become renowned in the business world today. Capturing the innovative strategies and tactics he created at Southwest Airlines, Young will offer insight and practical information on creating a culture of customer service that can be implemented immediately. Attendees will be treated to a compelling experience that will change the way they view themselves, their customers and the company for which they work.
Blogging and Blog Liability: The Wave of the Future
With the advent of Web 2.0, anyone with a computer and Internet access has a voice – and millions are speaking up! Turning a deaf ear to what is being said could be a death knell to late or reluctant adopters. This session will discuss the blog explosion and how companies can set up their own blogs, the need for corporate blog policies, the legal liability that is placed on bloggers and how to better manage the risk of blogging.
Going Green and Other Emerging Coverages for Underwriters
Today the insurance industry is at the threshold of a transformation that will undoubtedly cause companies to re-evaluate the traditional view of risk as the result of emerging issues related to the Green movement. These issues will create new demands from customers and cause traditional insurance company practices to change in order to meet the demand. All aspects of company operations will be impacted as a result. Insurance companies may have to re-evaluate their risk tolerance, develop workforce education and training programs to deal with the new exposures appropriately, think differently about underwriting and pricing new exposures, develop the proper loss control or engineering practices and develop appropriate claim procedures to respond to customer demand. This session presents a particularly relevant and thought-provoking view of emerging issues that will have a profound impact on the industry.
Case Study on Effective Marketing
For a marketing plan to be effective, the various parts of the insurance company need to work together. This session will touch on the need to examine the definition of “marketing.” For example, how many times have we heard underwriters wonder why a company would offer a certain type of product, or claims adjusters wonder why their company offers a particular coverage while at the same time the distribution network is complaining about the pricing being too high? An effective, integrated marketing plan that is developed in a cross-functional environment that includes goals, measures and accountability can make a real difference. See several “live” examples from American Modern Insurance Group. The case study will cover the process from start to finish including a brief background on why we need to make some changes, how we involve more than just the “traditional” product & underwriting groups, a discussion of the necessary cultural changes we’re pushing, and how we track results. The conclusion? Marketing is more than just distribution and can make a real difference.
30 Ideas in 60 Minutes
Learn from your peers as insurance company marketing professionals each present ideas that worked. In this fun and fast-paced session you will learn practical tips and ideas that you can apply to real-world situations.
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