Real growth -- not incremental improvements to last year’s numbers, but big results coming from new opportunities you manage to seize and commercialize -- is hard to come by. There are so many distractions, so many rabbit holes you can fall into -- the lure of a cool technology, a move by a competitor that appears to be smart, a high-pressure conversation with a board member, a convincing argument from a colleague on why an idea will or won’t work or a CFO waving a red flag. There are also so many ways to convince yourself that the status quo, at least for now, is tolerable -- the comfort of a good current quarter, the reassurance of lots of money being plowed into new technology, the establishment of an innovation team or being recognized with an industry award. But somehow, things still don’t feel quite right. You wonder why, in spite of upbeat business reviews from trusted employees, the new product pilots aren’t quite panning out. Some new start-up (or two, or three or more) seems to be whipping up a storm in the market, and you feel left in the dust (or left to contemplate paying a hefty premium to buy what someone else managed to build right under your nose). What to do? The answers are astoundingly simple, so simple, in fact, that they elude the very smart, big-school-degree types running around corporate America today. These leaders are fully in control of their growth destinies, yet all too often are unable to deliver and either blame some externality or create a mirage that all is well. Here’s the three-step formula to get real growth:

1. Define the customer problem you are solving. This is the first, almost painfully obvious step. Yet, consider how many people in big roles define their business’ marketplace value around internally generated definitions of value, claim to know customers' needs but never talk to customers or allocate resources to deploy new technologies with no connection to how customers act or how they lead lives in which your business probably plays only a teeny, tiny role.

Let’s parse what this first step means.

• Define: with absolute clarity, in a way that lets you understand the total scope of opportunity, not just what’s in front of your nose and linked to today’s P&L drivers.
• The: one, with focus.
• Customer: the people who take their wallets out of their pockets and give you their money – not the internal lobbyists.
• Problem: a real pain point, not something that merely makes people feel good. People will prioritize getting rid of their pain as way more important than a gratuitous feel-good purchase.
• You: the bigger you, the organization, mobilized around your singular focus.
• Solve: dramatically better than anyone else, so you have a massive jump on others in the market who will chase after any good business opportunity to eat into or take over share.

2. Establish the fundamentals to cultivate growth.

• Governance: If your plan is to create big sources of growth, the CEO has to own the goal, including implementation, and hold the rest of the C-suite accountable. If not, accept your destiny as an incremental player, at best.
• Accountability: Big new sources of growth will come from separate accountability outside the established P&L structures. No fault to the P&L leaders; their work is important and drives the company today. But the goals, timeframes, talent and implementation path to run a scale business is based on predictability, control and risk reduction. Contrast these attributes with what’s needed to spawn a big, new business: experimentation, failure, ambiguity and risk-taking. The established P&L priorities will always overwhelm the nascent ideas trying to grow into big future profit producers.
• Talent: The people who are absolutely brilliant at running the machine are unlikely to be the same folks who will create the next big thing, and vice versa. That’s not personal, it’s the reality that we are all really good at some things and mediocre at others and should just avoid yet others. Be truthful about that, both regarding yourself and when evaluating others.
• Metrics: Find the metrics that connect customer needs and wants to the customer actions driving the P&L. It’s a cop-out to say this can’t be done, and it’s easy to fall back on familiar but irrelevant metrics. Focus on customer behavior measurements to drive decisions. High-level reporting of income statement and balance sheet line items are interesting, and certainly matter to your investors. But they will blind you to the below-the-surface measures that matter – the real drivers that are moving every day as your customers make decisions affecting your performance whether or not you acknowledge them. Operate your business at that level, and you will drive your destiny.
• Process: Industrial-strength processes that enforce predictability, control and risk reduction will steamroll over anything that doesn’t look exactly like what came before. Remember the definition of insanity often attributed to Albert Einstein: “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

3. Embrace and behave according to the mindset of a founder, or move on. In The Startup Playbook, author David Kidder cites the five qualities of the successful entrepreneur. These attributes apply equally well to leaders in any enterprise, not just what we have traditionally defined as start-ups.
   1. Know thyself. Your team’s success will be a direct reflection of your self-awareness and deployment of your own gifts to whatever opportunity you go after.
   2. Ruthlessly focus on your biggest ideas. Focus means laser-like drive against the beacon you see out in front of you that represents realization of your solution to the customer problem. But not to the exclusion of listening – being able to filter and apply that which is valid, without getting diluted by the well-meaning, but utterly useless opinions you will be offered. It’s a tightrope.
   3. Build painkillers, not vitamins. Back to Point 1. Solve a real problem. Don’t create a nice-to-have.
   4. Be 10x better. That’s Kidder’s estimate of how far ahead you have to be to outrun and outlast the inevitable competition.
   5. Be a monopolist. At least in mindset, think gigantically. Think about how you can own the market, not just create something that will satisfy a near-term demand.

Creating big sources of growth with real results can be predictable. You just have to follow the formula. This post also appearing in Huffington Post.

Insurance has been around for a long time … dating back to ancient times. The first written insurance policy was carved into a Babylonian obelisk; the “Hammurabi Code” offered basic insurance for individuals if a personal catastrophe made it impossible to pay back a debt. Insurance continued to grow and evolve across centuries and continents. The guilds in Europe supported master craftsman with a type of group coverage to subsidize them and their families upon injury, disability or death. Deals made in London coffee houses to cover maritime risks were the beginnings of the London Market. These efforts met a universal and timeless need to stabilize individuals and the economy against risk. The evolution of insurance often followed emerging developments such as the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution and the information revolution. Each of these revolutions created and reshaped businesses, including insurance. Insurance evolved with each revolution to meet changing needs and to adapt to new developments or technologies that changed businesses, markets and risk. Each revolution required a re-thinking and re-alignment. It required business leaders to shed sacred notions and wake up to the possibilities of rebuilding on a new foundation while maintaining the old structure long enough to move out safely. Erasing the notion of moderate change Our industry is waking up and finding itself in the midst of seismic shifts. A revolution is underway: the digital revolution. This revolution is different because of the complexity, breadth and depth of converging factors and global changes. Our industry, steeped in centuries of tradition, must erase the idea that we can ease our organizations into the new era with minor adjustments. Think of how the digital revolution is going to reinvent your business model. Insurers are moving from product-driven to customer-driven strategies; from limited distribution channels (such as agents) to an array of channels based on customer choice; from line-of-business silos to customer-centricity and customer experience for all products across all lines; from simply containing risk to actively providing personal risk management; and from siloed solutions focused on transactions to a platform portfolio that brings together real-time interaction for all products and services for customers, giving them an Amazon-like experience. Whew! It stretches our minds to consider it all at once. The rebirth of real opportunity These influencers of change are challenging traditional insurance models, resulting in declining customers, loyalty and premiums. Whether it is the demand for mobile channels in addition to agents; or declining life insurance or personal auto and home insurance because of demographic changes; or declining premiums for products like auto insurance because of the emergence of technologies like crash avoidance, connected cars and autonomous vehicles, these influencers of change demand we have a re-imagination and a rebirth of insurance. The promise of the digital revolution is that we can. Traditionally damaging business factors no longer have to be met with traditional business adjustments. Insurers must look to reinvent the business model, not unlike how Uber reinvented the taxi model. Increasingly, insurance CEOs are speaking out about the coming disruption of insurance and the need for insurance to aggressively rethink the business model. On May 27, 2015, Generali’s CEO, Mario Greco, commented in the Financial Times that insurers will disappear unless they embrace sweeping technological change. He went on to say that the insurance sector is “on the verge of a revolution and has been lagging behind every other industry — it has been paralyzed.” On June 30, 2015, Lloyd’s CEO, Inga Beale, stated in the Financial Times that insurers are in danger of being “uberized” as technology allows companies from other sectors to undermine insurance sectors role to manage risk. So how do insurers move forward? First they need to keep their current business viable and growing to fund the future. This requires transformation of the existing business by leveraging a platform of integrated solutions — laying the groundwork for a renaissance of insurance. Insurers may enhance auto or life insurance policies, processes and customer interaction. Foundational transformations can also be used to reinvent insurance such as by offering a “family or lifecycle policy” that offers a single bundle to meet the broad risk of individual or family needs instead of individual policies for each of the needs. Alternatively, insurers could offer new risk mitigation or value-added services that leverage technology from the connected home and connected auto … all creating a new customer experience and engagement model. In recent UK consumer research published by Majesco, one in every three customers feel that insurers are failing on minimum service expectations. Even the highest customer satisfaction score in the insurance industry -- 69%, reached by motor insurance providers -- compares unfavorably with world-class companies such as Amazon, which scores 87% based on the UK Customer satisfaction Index for January 2015. Furthermore, more than 70% of the market indicates they want a "family" product, combining motor, home, travel and pet in a single insurance policy. Nearly 42% would buy a family product tomorrow, while 30% were unsure but did not rule out the option – highlighting that a significant majority (72%) of the market expects access to a product that is not available today. While some insurers will dismiss the findings as not relevant to them, they should instead see a warning signal that policy bundling is growing in demand. The Internet has created a market with “no borders” because customers research online to seek out offerings and options to meet their needs. In today’s digital world, what happens in one region does not stay in one region. Rather, these new developments from products to services, new channels and new approaches to risk are rapidly rippling to other regions. The examples are many. John Hancock’s new life product uses South Africa’s Vitality concept. Google’s Compare site was the result of a UK acquisition. Direct-to-consumer models cropped up first and most strongly in Australia and the UK. Any one of a hundred multi-national insurers can send an idea rippling across continents at the speed of an e-mail. Meeting the digital revolution with real transformation is going to require an acceptance that everything we have known about insurance was good for yesterday. The only thing we can count on is the necessity of insurance that has held true from the Hammurabi Code until today. So as you attend industry events and read articles, blogs and reports, put the topic of business transformation into strategic perspective. Is business transformation helping you move from legacy software solutions to modern, configurable solutions that will handle the unexpected future? Are you providing a foundation to change traditional business assumptions and business models to provide an enhanced customer experience and value? Will you be the traditional retailer or an Amazon? Will you be the traditional taxi or Uber? Your answer will influence your strategic direction and relevance in an industry that is on the precipice of disruption. Will you be disrupted or be the disruptor? Majesco is focused on transformation as a path to renaissance. Are you?

While many (including me) talk about the need for integrating the setting and execution of strategy, the management of risk, decision-making and performance monitoring, reporting and management, there isn’t a great deal of useful guidance on how to do it well. A recent article in CGMA Magazine, 8 Best Practices for Aligning Strategy, Planning and Risk, describes a methodology used by Mass Mutual that it calls the “Pinwheel.” There are a number of points in the article that I like:

• “Success in business is influenced by many factors: effective strategy and execution; deep understanding of the business environment, including its risks; the ability to innovate and adapt; and the ability to align strategy throughout the organization.”
• "The CEO gathers senior corporate and business unit leaders off-site three times a year. As well as fostering transparency, teamwork and alignment, this ensures that the resulting information reaches the board of directors in time for its meetings….The result: The leadership team is more engaged in what the company’s businesses are doing, not just divisional priorities. This makes them more collaborative and informed leaders. This helps foster a more unified brand and culture across the organization.”
• “A sound understanding of global business conditions and trends is fundamental to effective governance and planning.” Comment: Understanding the external context is critical if optimal objectives and strategies are to be set, with an adequate understanding of the risks inherent in each strategy and the relative merits of every option.
• “Strategy and planning is a dynamic process, and disruptive innovation is essential for cultural change and strategic agility. Management and the board must continually consider new initiatives that may contribute to achieving the organization’s long-term vision and aspirations.”
• Key risk indicators are established for strategies, plans, projects and so on.
• “Evaluation and monitoring to manage risks and the overall impact on the organization is an ongoing process….Monitoring is a continuous, multi-layered process. In addition to quarterly monitoring of progress against the three-year operating plan and one-year budget, the company has initiated bottom-up 'huddle boards' that provide critical information across all levels of the organization."
• “Effective governance requires a tailored information strategy for the executive leadership team and the board of directors…. This should include: essential information needed to monitor and evaluate strategic execution of the organization; risks to the achievement of long-term objectives; and risks related to conforming to compliance and reporting requirements.”
• “Integrating the ERM, FP&A and budget functions can help to manage risks effectively and to allocate limited capital more quickly and efficiently.”

I am not familiar with the company and its methodology, but based on the limited information in the article I think there are some areas for improvement: 1. Rather than selecting strategies and objectives and only then considering risk, the consideration of risk should be a critical element in the strategy-selection process. 2. The article talks about providing performance and risk information separately to the corporate development and risk functions. Surely, this should be integrated and used primarily by operating management to adjust course as needed. 3. I am always nervous when the CFO and his team set the budget and there is no mention of how operating management participates in the process. However, it is interesting that the risk function at Mass Mutual is involved. What do you think? I welcome your comments.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky recently held that an insurer properly denied coverage to a hospital because the hospital gave untimely notice of the claim. In Ashland Hospital Corporation v. RLI Insurance Company, Civil Action No. 13-143-DLB-EBA (E.D. Ky. Mar. 17, 2015), the insurer avoided exposure on a $10 million directors and officers (D&O) excess policy claim by successfully arguing that the insured, a hospital association, failed to give timely notice of the claim as required under the terms of the policy. Background The hospital purchased $15 million in primary D&O liability insurance for Oct. 1, 2010, through Oct. 1, 2011. The hospital also purchased a $10 million excess policy from another insurer covering the same one-year period. Both policies were written on a “claims-made” as opposed to an “occurrence” basis. In July 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a subpoena to the hospital as part of a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) investigation into allegations that the hospital billed federal healthcare programs for heart procedures that were not medically necessary. Ultimately, the hospital agreed to pay $40.9 million to resolve the allegations. The hospital notified the primary carrier of the HIPAA investigation in December 2011, which was within the 90-day notice period required by the primary policy. In June 2012, after being informed that the primary carrier’s policy covered the investigation, the hospital notified the excess insurer of the HIPAA investigation. The insurer denied coverage because the hospital failed to provide timely notice during the policy period or within the applicable 90-day extended reporting period after the policy terminated in October 2011. The insurer claimed that the notice requirement was a condition precedent to establishing coverage and that it did not have to show prejudice to deny coverage. The hospital sued for breach of the insurance contract. Decision The insurer argued that it correctly denied coverage because the hospital failed to provide notice within the 90-day extended reporting period after the excess policy expired. The insurer argued the excess policy followed form to the primary policy, thereby incorporating the notice provisions of the primary policy that required notice within 90 days of the end of the policy. The hospital admitted the excess policy did follow form to the primary policy but claimed that the presence of notice provisions in both policies made the primary policy’s notice provisions ambiguous. The Ashland court rejected the hospital’s argument, holding that the notice provisions in the primary and excess policies did not conflict; to the contrary, they coexisted. Therefore, the insurer’s denial of coverage was proper because the hospital failed to provide timely notice as required by the terms of the primary policy. The court also held that the hospital violated the notice provisions of the insurer’s excess policy, which required the insured to provide notice when specified events occurred. The hospital claimed that the notice provisions were ambiguous and did not require it to provide the insurer with notice every time an event specified in the notice provisions took place, but rather only when the most recent event occurred. The insurer countered that the terms of the policy were clear and that the hospital was required to provide notice when any event specified in the policy took place. The insurer contended that, because the hospital provided notice only when the most recent event occurred and not when previous events occurred, the hospital was not entitled to coverage. The Ashland court held that the provisions were not ambiguous and that adopting the hospital’s interpretation would effectively render the terms meaningless. The court agreed with the insurer that for coverage to exist, the hospital had to provide timely notice to the insurer when all of the events specified by the provision took place, not merely when the most recent event occurred. Because the hospital failed to do so, it forfeited its right to coverage under the terms of the excess policy. The Ashland court also considered and rejected the hospital’s alternative argument that the insurer had to show substantial prejudice to deny coverage. In so arguing, the hospital relied on Jones v. Bituminous Casualty Corporation, 821 S.W.2d 798 (Ky. 1991), which held that absent a showing of substantial prejudice a workers’ compensation insurer could not deny coverage because of an insured’s untimely compliance with a notice provision. The Ashland court noted that Kentucky courts have not addressed whether Jones applied to claims-made insurance policies but predicted that the Kentucky Supreme Court would not extend Jones to a claims-made policy because to do so would effectively rewrite the policy without justification. Takeaways There are two principal takeaways from the Ashland decision:

• First, in Kentucky, excess insurers desiring to “follow” a primary policy would be well-advised to use language that ensures neither policy conflicts. While not mentioned by the Ashland court, a simple way to accomplish this result would be for the excess policy to include language in the “following form” clause confirming that, in the event of any conflict between the primary and excess wording, the primary language should control. Failure to take these steps could render some terms of the policies ambiguous and unenforceable.
• The second takeaway concerns the Ashland court’s sustaining the enforceability of the claims-made and reporting provisions of the policy. Earlier this year, the state supreme courts in Colorado and Wisconsin reaffirmed that the claims-made and reporting requirements in D&O and professional liability policies are conditions precedent to coverage that cannot be trumped by the notice prejudice rule applicable to occurrence-based policies. (See Craft v. Philadelphia Ins. Co., 2015 CO 11 (Colo. Feb. 17, 2015); Anderson, et al. v. Aul, et al., 2015 WI 19 (Feb. 25, 2015). Thus, Ashland is illustrative of a continuing trend of recent decisions that have reached this same conclusion.

Wilson Elser will continue to monitor this and other cases involving primary and excess policy coverage disputes. NOTE: Patrick C. Walsh (Law Clerk-Louisville) assisted in researching and drafting this Alert.

Parents of new drivers know what they are up against when they are faced with insurance rates, but the increased premiums can still be a bit of a shock. Because teen drivers are considered to be the most “at risk,” insurance rates are expensive. In fact, insuring a young male driver may boost an insurance bill by 92%, while a female driver of the same age will boost the bill about 67%.

Before You Insure, Talk With Your Teen

Your teen may assume that, as soon as she is licensed, she has the freedom to drive immediately and as freely as she wishes. Before you insure your teen, talk to her about your expectations, such as distraction-free driving or driving during daylight hours. Make it clear that if your expectations are not met, you can cancel insurance and revoke driving privileges or you can ask your teen to take some of the financial responsibility of the insurance premium. Given the hefty price tag, you will probably have a teen committed to safe driving. Make decisions that work for you and your family and stay firm with your expectations. Remember, your teen driver must be insured, even if she drives infrequently.

Holding Your Teen Accountable for Safety

If your teen agrees to drive safely and adhere to any of your driving rules, he will most likely have the best intentions of sticking to it, but teens are sometimes easy to persuade; the whole peer pressure thing is still alive and well, including when it comes to driving. Fortunately, there are apps and tracking devices to monitor the way your teen really drives. While you may feel like you are overstepping your grounds of trust, think of monitoring as added security. These apps/devices will not only encourage your teen to drive safely and keep him safe on the road, but may also get you an insurance discount from certain companies:

• Tracking Driving Habits With GPS: There are several relatively inexpensive products on the market that plug directly into the car’s diagnostic port and track driving habits. You can set particular speeds or perimeter limits, and if your teen driver exceeds the speed or goes “out of bounds” you will be notified via text or email. Being able to “see” the way your teen really drives can help you have constructive conversations about her driving choices and habits. There are also a few apps on the market that will do the same thing as the plug-in tracker.

• Prevent Texting and Driving: One thing that most teens will continually try to do is text and drive, regardless of the laws or safety concerns. Rather than struggling to take the phone away, install an app that will prevent your driver from texting while driving. This app must be turned on by the driver (so there is a level of responsibility and trust required), but once it’s working, the app will prevent the driver from seeing or hearing any incoming messages or calls.

Decreasing Insurance Rates Before 25

While insurance rates often decrease when the young driver turns 25, there are ways to have discounted insurance for your teen. Depending on your insurance, you may be able to receive a reduced rate if:

• Your Teen Gets Good Grades: Some insurance companies offer a discount if your teen driver maintains a certain GPA. This is just another incentive for your teen to try harder at school. The situation is basically a math problem: Good grades=Car privileges.

• Drive a Safer Car: Although a standard sedan may not be your teen’s dream car, if it’s got a good safety rating and airbags/anti-lock brakes, you may be able to receive reduced insurance.

• Take a Class: Many older drivers can receive an insurance discount if they take a class to brush up on their driving knowledge, and some companies offer the same for teen drivers.

If your teen commits to driving safely, makes efforts to keep insurance rates low and keeps a clean driving record, his car insurance premium should be lower before the magic age of 25. Whether your teen driver is in a crash with an uninsured driver or if you fail to provide your young driver with insurance, you may need to hire a car accident lawyer to help you sort out any legal issues in the event of a car accident.

As thieves discover more and more ways to steal personal information, it is critical that people use identity theft protection services that involve a wide security sweep of all personal identifiable information and high-risk activity. The marketplace for identity theft protection now includes all kinds of monitoring services and features. Make the best choice by understanding each feature available, how they differ from each other and their capacity for sustaining protection. Credit Monitoring Credit monitoring is the process of reviewing a consumer’s credit activity with the credit bureau. It monitors the activity and changes to a credit report, including inquiries made by a creditor to request a copy of a report. Monitoring provides an alert system for potential fraudulent activity or accounts being established. Credit monitoring provides an alert system to activity affecting your credit report and credit score. Monitoring enables you to stay on top of fraudulent activity so that you can address the inaccuracies immediately. It also reduces the financial impact that identity theft can cause, by reporting the fraud earlier and reducing potential out-of-pocket losses. Identity Monitoring Identity monitoring looks at more than just credit information; it encompasses all personal identifiable information: name, birth date, address, email, phone number, Social Security number, etc. This could include monitoring the Internet, national databases, credit files, public records and more. If thieves have your personal identifiable information, it’s the perfect cover for their crimes because everything will point to you, not them. Even kids can become victims of identity theft: Each year, more than 140,000 identity theft cases involve children. Social Security Number Monitoring It’s exactly how it sounds – protection for one of the most important pieces of information that a person has. This type involves monitoring hundreds of millions of records for unauthorized use of a Social Security number (SSN). 70% of people are worried about the safety of their SSN. Monitoring an SSN is particularly important for children because thieves have plenty of time to use the child’s information for their own gain before the child finds out by applying for an account or a line of credit and is denied because of the thieves’ damage. Data Sweeps Unlike previous monitoring services that focus on particular data or activities, data sweeps encompass a plethora of touch points and personal information. Data sweeps monitor the Internet for instances of criminals using stolen phone numbers, addresses, birth dates and more. How many data points are included and how often the data sweeps occur vary from plan to plan. Data sweeps cover the information that consumers are worried about, like mailing addresses (50%) and phone numbers (60%). It can also help a person feel more secure about online presence because data sweeps can lead to removing exposed personal information on the web. Credit Card Monitoring The lending institutions that issue credit and debit cards will usually monitor transactions and notify cardholders of suspicious activity. Credit card monitoring, as offered through an identity monitoring service, will monitor the Internet for fraudulent activity involving credit card and debit account numbers, PIN numbers and other personal information in Internet hacker chat rooms and the dark web. Credit card monitoring looks at activity outside of the credit report and outside of activity monitored by the cardholder’s bank or issuing institution. As a result, it can detect fraud that may or may not make it to a credit report or be captured by the bank. Recovery Assistance Most services will not only keep you informed but help you resolve any suspicious activity. Features could include assistance from a credentialed professional. Some assistance features may only provide victims with next steps or resources, while others may actually take on some of the activities a victim must complete to rebuild his or her reputation. 47% of victims who spent 6-plus months fixing the issue(s) felt severe emotional distress vs. the 4% of victims who felt that way after resolving issues within 24 hours. Victims can limit the health and financial costs of recovery by using a protection plan that includes assistance from professionals who know how to get quick results. Lost Purse or Wallet Assistance Whether you misplace your wallet or it actually gets stolen, most identity theft protection services will help you contact the correct institutions and minimize the damage if a thief tries to use your stolen information. Despite the growing threat of malware and hacking, physical theft is still a problem, and 43% of physical theft happens at work. Service Guarantee Most companies have a service agreement that provides some sort of refund for customers if there’s a defect in the company’s service. New technological advances are made every day for security and thievery, so you need to make sure that a company will help you if its protection services can’t keep up with thieves’ new tricks. Some identity theft protection services go above and beyond with the layers of security and assistance they offer, in addition to the commonly included products listed above. Some of those extra special features are: Additional Databases While most services monitor your personal identifiable information online or on credit reports, not all of them will monitor databases like criminal records and sex offender registries. Some companies charge extra for monitoring these additional databases. Thieves don’t just use your personal information to empty your bank account. Thieves will steal reputable citizens’ identities and use them as aliases when committing crimes. Medical Fraud Assistance Monitoring for medical fraud involves protecting insurance records from criminal use and assisting victims when a thief tampers with a victim’s medical history or racks up medical debt. The crime rate for medical identity theft increases by 32% each year, and more than $12.3 billion in out-of-pocket expenses were spent in the past year because of medical identity theft. Tax Fraud Assistance Products include giving victims an action plan and providing forms and contact information for working with the IRS. Services that actually do recovery work for victims must have certified tax specialists who are approved for working with the IRS on behalf of the victims. In 2014, the FTC’s 1.5 million fraud-related complaints revealed that consumers have paid a total of $1.7 billion because of fraud, and a third of those complaints were tax-related. Tax fraud could include IRS phishing schemes, phone scams and stealing taxpayers’ information to file phony tax returns and get their refunds. Family Coverage Protection plans may allow members to add family members to their plan; however, adding family members often comes with additional charges. When family members share accounts (e.g. bank, music, email), passwords, etc., everyone feels the consequences if one of them becomes a victim. Other Other pieces of your personal information that may or may not be included in the common types of monitoring: loan/lease information, driver’s license, computer security, bank account information, passports, etc. Thieves’ use of hacking, malware and social media have skyrocketed over the past few years. As fraudsters improve their tactics, they gain access to more and more information. Each type of monitoring covers important information that could lead to serious damage if taken into the hands of a fraudster, and no one type covers everything. Likewise, each feature has importance, but they’re most effective when working together because they create sustainable, comprehensive coverage. People need to make sure that their identity theft protection plan includes all the necessary data points with multiple types of monitoring, assistance and recovery features, so their information stays secure.

There are more than 41,000 suicide deaths per year in the U.S; the majority occur among people of working age. This number alone can dramatically affect the workplace. Add to this number that there are about six people affected, many being coworkers, for every suicide death, and the potential impact to the workplace quickly becomes evident. Even workplaces with the most comprehensive suicide prevention policies and programs are not immune from a suicide that occurs at work or off-site. Because of the high likelihood that at some point a workplace will experience an employee suicide (or a suicide by a client, vendor or employee family member), it is critical that managers know how to respond and facilitate appropriate "postvention" services designed to help employees and the organization recover and return to normal. Postvention services include psychological first aid, crisis intervention and other support services that managers can facilitate for employees following a workplace suicide or suicide attempt. In 2013, the Workplace Postvention Task Force of the American Association of Suicidology and the Workplace Task Force of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, in partnership with the Carson J Spencer Foundation and Crisis Care Network, wrote, "A Manager’s Guide to Suicide in the Workplace: 10 Action Steps for Dealing with the Aftermath of a Suicide." The guide has been evaluated by managers in diverse work organizations, including by leaders in human resources, management, safety, occupational health and wellness and employee assistance programs. The overwhelming feedback about the guide was that it is useful; workplace leaders who reviewed the guide but have not yet experienced a workplace suicide plan to keep the guide as a resource. As the title of the guide implies, it provides managers with 10 specific actions they can take following a workplace suicide. The actions are divided into phases to help the manager work through the acute phase, recovery phase and reconstructing phase. Additional useful tools for managers include how to draft notification memos and prepare external announcements to disseminate to the broader workplace and the media. Some of the most useful tools in the guide include checklists for how to implement each action, descriptions of how to identify roles for managers during the response, instructions for following crisis decision-making flowcharts and templates for drafting crisis communication messages. The overwhelming majority of users said they would recommend this resource to other managers. This blog is designed to encourage you to look at the guide and consider using it as a resource, should the need arise in your workplace. We also welcome your feedback on suggestions to make the guide more useful to all workplace leaders. Feedback can be sent to the senior program director at the Carson J Spencer Foundation, jess@carsonjspencer.org. With so many working-aged adults dying by suicide each year, managers need to be prepared to deal with such a crisis. This guide provides concrete steps managers can follow after a suicide to psychologically support their workforce and provide leadership to the work organization as they work to return quickly to normal operations.

With an onslaught of bad recent cyber news, is cyber risk worth the trouble, and how should corporate directors be looking at this issue? The recent news is the high-profile breach of 4 million employee records at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management by alleged Chinese hackers and the news that even the security experts are getting hacked, with Kaspersky Labs reporting a breach supposedly committed by a nation state. President Obama also made cyber security an emphasis of his G7 talks in Germany, commenting that the U.S. government needs to be more "nimble, aggressive and well-resourced" to combat this threat. He also urged the U.S. Congress to pass the 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, a first step in a coordinated and systemic public/private response to cyber risks. The attacks show no signs of slowing. PwC's 2015 Global State of Information Security Survey indicates a compound annual growth rate of 66% for cyber incidents since 2009. The 10,000 respondents to the survey reported almost 43 million detected incidents during 2014 alone—or 117,339 incoming attacks every day of the year. Is cyber security risk worth it? Yes, but with a caveat. Without a doubt, the many innovations currently taking place with today's information technologies open up many new vulnerabilities. Risks are now difficult to isolate, and a protect-and-defend model is not effective against the systemic risks inherent across any corporate ecosystem. Attacks can also come from a growing list of sources, including hacktivists, foreign and domestic nation-states, customers, employees, partners, consultants, competitors, organized crime and the bored neighbor kid living in the basement and surviving on a diet of Cheetos, Red Bull and your weak IT security infrastructure. The direct and indirect costs of mounting an effective cyber security defense are only getting more expensive, and the risks are only increasing. Despite this, these technologies also have an upside—a significant one as they are now competitive table stakes, as new business tools always are. These tools are changing market dynamics and customer preferences, and the technologies embody distinct economic advantages such as the lowering of transaction and engagement costs. Business models and competitive advantages are changing as a result of these tools. These tools are shaping and defining business success, but the risks are holding many companies back. Which takes us to the caveat. The upside of these technologies outweighs the downside. Cyber is worth the risk, but boards, directors and managers need to be looking to exploit the business advantages of these tools, while at the same time mounting a "a nimble, aggressive and well-resourced" approach to mitigating these incessant risks. This is easier said than done; 89% of companies listed on the Fortune 500 in 1955 are no longer on the list. Business cannibalizes the companies that can't capitalize on the opportunities presented by changing market conditions, including new technologies. Directors need to be diligent in overseeing cyber risk as part of a comprehensive IT governance and enterprise risk governance approach. But they also need to be on top of governing cyber opportunity—that's the only way that they can make cyber security risk worth it.

Since the start of the decade, we've encouraged insurers and industry stakeholders to think about "Insurance 2020" as they formulate their strategies and try to turn change into opportunity. Insurance 2020’s central message is that whatever organizations are doing in the short term, they need to be looking at how to keep pace with the sweeping social, technological, environmental, economic and political (STEEP) developments ahead. Now we’re at the mid-point between 2010 and 2020, and we thought it would be useful to review the developments we’ve seen to date and look ahead to the major trends coming up over the next five years and beyond. Where are we now? Insurance is an industry at the tipping point as it grapples with the impact of new technology, new distribution models, changing customer behavior and more exacting local, regional and global regulations. For some businesses, these developments are a potential source of disruption. Those taking part in our latest global CEO survey see more disruption ahead than CEOs in any other commercial sector (see Figure 1), underlining the need for strategic re-evaluation and possible re-orientation. Yet for others, change offers competitive advantage. A telling indication of the mixed mood within the industry is that although nearly 60% of insurance CEOs see more opportunities than three years ago, almost the same proportion (61%) see more threats. The long-term opportunities for insurers in a world where people are living longer and have more wealth to protect are evident. But the opportunities are also bringing fresh competition, both from within the insurance industry and from a raft of new entrants coming in from outside. The entrants include companies from other financial services sectors, technology giants, healthcare companies, venture capital firms and nimble start-ups. How are insurers feeling the impact of these developments? Customer revolution The insurance marketplace is becoming increasingly fragmented, with an aging population at one end of the spectrum and a less loyal and often hard to engage millennial generation at the other. The family structures and ethnic make-up within many markets are also becoming more varied and complex, which has implications for product design, marketing and sales. This splintering customer base and the need to develop relevant and engaging products and solutions present both a challenge and an opportunity for insurers. On the life, annuities and pensions side, insurers could design targeted plans for single parents or shift from living benefits to well-being or quality of life support for younger people. On the property and casualty (P&C) side, insurers could create partnerships with manufacturers and service companies. Insurers could also offer coverage for different lifestyles, offering flexible, pay-as-you-use insurance or providing top-up coverage for people in peer-to-peer insurance plans. As the nature of the marketplace changes, so do customer expectations. Customers want insurers to offer them the same kind of easy access, show the same understanding of needs and provide the sorts of targeted products that they’ve become accustomed to from online retailers and other highly customer-centric sectors. Digital developments offer part of the answer by enabling insurers to deliver anytime, anywhere convenience, streamline operations and reach untapped segments. Insurers are also using digital developments to enhance customer profiling, develop sales leads, tailor financial solutions to individual needs and, for P&C businesses in particular, improve claims assessment and settlement. Further priorities include the development of a seamless multi-channel experience, which allows customers to engage when and how they want without having to relay the same information with each interaction. Because the margins between customer retention and loss are finer than ever, the challenge for insurers is how to develop the genuinely customer-centric culture, organizational capabilities and decision-making processes needed to keep pace with ever-more-exacting customer expectations. Digitization Most insurers have invested in digital distribution, with some now moving beyond direct digital sales to models that embed products and services in people’s lives (e.g., pay-as-you drive insurance). A parallel development is the proliferation of new sources of information and analytical techniques, which are beginning to reshape customer targeting, risk underwriting and financial advice. Ever greater access to data doesn’t just increase the speed of servicing and lower costs but also opens the way for ever greater precision, customization and adaptation. As sensors and other digital intelligence become a more pervasive element of the "Internet of Things," savvy insurers can – and in some instances have – become trusted partners in areas ranging from health and well-being to home and commercial equipment care. Digital technology could extend the reach of life, annuities and pension coverage into largely untapped areas such as younger and lower-income segments. Information advantage Availability of both traditional and big data is exploding, with the resulting insights providing a valuable aid to customer-centricity and associated revenue growth. Yet many insurers are still finding it difficult to turn data into actionable insights. The keys to resolving this are as much about culture and organization as the application of technology. Making the most of the information and insight is also likely to require a move away from lengthy business planning to a faster and more flexible, data-led, iterative approach. Insurers would need to launch, test, obtain feedback and respond in a model similar to that used by many of today’s telecom and technology companies. A combination of big data analytics, sensor technology and the communicating networks that make up the Internet of Things would allow insurers to anticipate risks and customer demands with far greater precision than ever before. The benefits would include not only keener pricing and sharper customer targeting but a decisive shift in insurers’ value model from reactive claims payer to preventative risk advisers. The emerging game changer is the advance in analytics, from descriptive (what happened) and diagnostic (why it happened) analysis to predictive (what is likely to happen) and prescriptive (determining and ensuring the right outcome). This shift not only would enable insurers to anticipate what will happen and when, but also to respond actively. This offers great possibilities in areas ranging from more resilient supply chains and the elimination of design faults to stronger conversion rates for life insurers and more effective protection against fire and flood within property coverage. Two-speed growth These developments are coming to the fore against the backdrop of enduringly slow economic growth, continued low interest rates and soft P&C premiums within many developed markets. Interest rates will eventually begin to rise, which will cause some level of short-term disruption across the insurance sector, but over time higher interest rates will lead to higher levels of investment income. On the P&C side, reserve releases have helped to bolster returns in a softening market. But redundant reserves are being depleted, making it harder to sustain reported returns. The faster growing markets of South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East (SAAAME) offer considerable long-term potential, though insurance penetration in 2013 was still only 2.7% of GDP in emerging markets and the share of global premiums only 17%. Penetration in their advanced counterparts was 8.3%. Rapid urbanization is set to be a key driver of growth within SAAAME markets, increasing the value of assets in need of protection. Urbanization also makes it harder for those from rural areas to call on the support of their extended families and hence increases take-up of life, annuities and pensions coverage. The corollary is the growing concentration of risk within these mega-metropolises. Disruption and innovation Many forward-looking insurers are developing new business models in areas ranging from tie-ups between reinsurance and investment management companies to a new generation of health, wealth and retirement solutions. The pace of change can only accelerate in the coming years as innovations become mainstream in areas ranging from wearables, the Internet of Things and automated driver assistance systems (ADAS) to partnerships with technology providers and crowd-sourced models of risk evaluation and transfer. At the same time, a combination of digitization and new business models is disrupting the insurance marketplace by opening up new routes to market and new ways of engaging with customers. An increasing amount of standardized insurance will move over to mobile and Internet channels. But agents will still have a crucial role in helping businesses and retail customers to make sense of an ever-more-complex set of risks and to understand the trade-offs in managing them. On the life, annuities and pension side, this might include balancing the financial trade-offs between how much they want to live off now and their desired standard of living when they retire. On the P&C side, it would include designing effective aggregate protection for an increasingly broad and valuable array of assets and possessions. Companies can bring innovations to market much faster and more easily than in the past. These companies include new entrants that are using advanced profiling techniques to target customers and cost-efficient digital distribution to undercut incumbent competitors. It’s too soon to say how successful these new entrants and start-ups will be, but they will undoubtedly provide further impetus to the changes in customer expectations and how insurers compete. In the next two articles in this series, we look at how all these coalescing developments are likely to play out as we head toward 2020 and beyond and outline the strategic and operational implications for insurers. While we’ve set a nominal date of 2020, fast-moving businesses are already assessing and addressing these developments now as they look to keep pace with customer expectations and sharpen their competitive advantage. What comes through strongly is the need for reinvention rather just adjustment if insurers want to sustain revenue and competitive relevance. As a result, many insurers will look very different by 2020 and certainly by 2025. As new entrants and new business models begin to change the industry landscape, it’s also important to not only scan for developments within insurance but also maintain a clear view of the challenges and opportunities coming from outside the industry. For the full report from which this article is excerpted, click here.

The world is getting smaller. Companies of every size do business around the globe. This poses business interruption risks both direct and indirectly. Recent examples include the devastating flooding in Thailand and the Tohuku earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan. Property claims can be hard enough when they are at home; adding distance and language differences can make things more time-consuming and add expense to resolving a claim. There is good news, though: International claims are not that different than any other claim. For example, in 2013, when Ingersoll Rand suffered an $11 million-plus flood loss at a manufacturing plant in Shanghai, we calculated the property damage and business interruption loss amounts, prepared the claim and worked with the loss adjustor and the insurance company's forensic accounting team. We effected a settlement within three months of the end of the loss. Experience is the key. The Language The insurance world speaks English. The first question we are asked about preparing international claims is whether we have someone who speaks the local language. While this might have some benefit, it is far more important that someone understand the process and the numbers. On the rare occasion where a translator is necessary, that is all that is needed: a translator. It is not necessary to have a claims practitioner who is fluent. You are much better off with practitioners who know what they are doing on a property claim. The Location The time and cost to fly consultants around the world is a real concern. Often, policyholders will be inclined to hire less experienced professionals because of their proximity to the loss. This is a mistake. For the most part, information can be transferred electronically and explained over the phone. For companies based in the U.S. with operations abroad, all information necessary to prepare a claim can be transferred through headquarters. There are certain elements of a property claim where on-site assistance is needed (physical inventories, building or equipment inspections, etc.) This type of specific technical assistance can be coordinated with the insurance company and local resources. As with accounting information, the results of these physical inspections can be documented and sent back home. There is usually no need to send someone from here to there. As real examples, we have prepared and settled dozens of claims around the world without setting foot on the loss site. This is accomplished by sharing information electronically and communicating by phone, web meeting, web sharing portal, etc. The alternative of using local, less experienced professionals would undoubtedly add confusion to the process. Experience is the most important requirement in preparing any property claim. Don’t get the wrong impression - we have traveled all over the world for our clients when asked. Sometimes, the parties involved require the travel, or the loss simply demands it. However, this type of travel is less frequent now. If required, travel should be scheduled to maximize productivity to reduce the amount of travel needed. Again, experience and expertise allow this to be accomplished most efficiently. The Local Policy Local policies that cover losses abroad may have some differences from the global policy. If these differences affect recovery, in general the master policy can be invoked to make up any differences. You will want to prepare the claim according to the local policy, but be aware of differences. Your broker should be able to help sort out any differences and the reasons for those differences. The interpretation of the local policies by local adjusters can create confusion. Just be aware that the intent of the local policies should fit in with your global program - to indemnify for the loss. Summary Losses happen all over the world. Just because you are in New York and the loss is in Paris, France, does not mean you should treat it any differently than if it were in Paris, Texas. Language and location are not a barrier in this day and age. If you compromise expertise for proximity to the loss location, in the end it will cost you more. Look for a team that has had success managing international claims throughout the process, leading to results for clients.