Champions are few and far between. We hear about athletic champions allthe time, but in business, they seem to be an endangered species.I hope you think I'm wrong, and I'd like to be. But it's hard to hearabout the champions in our industry when no one is willing to talk aboutthem. You champions know who you are. You're the ones continually tryingnew ways to do things better. Getting the job done more efficiently, takingaction instead of reacting, pushing the envelope one too many times andknowing that asking for forgiveness is sometimes the only way to go.
If you are a faithful reader, you know that this entire publicationrevolves around champions and those of us who are trying to get to thatlevel. We want to hear about your battles-whether it's launching a new lifeinsurance product, an interactive claims Web site, or kicking off a newmultichannel marketing campaign. As an insurance executive, it's yourresponsibility to share your war stories with the industry. We need to hearthe good, the bad, and the ugly because it makes us a better industry as awhole. How are we going to compete and win in this financial services ratrace if we don't learn from each other's successes and mistakes?
It's important for us to work together to gain a leadership positionwithin the financial services industry. That means being more efficientwithin our companies, marketing and servicing our customers to theirsatisfaction and working together as an industry to build strength in ourproduct lines. Not to mention the old faithful focuses on reducing risk,dealing with catastrophes, globalization and fighting fraud, just tomention a few.
The editors at Insurance Networking are continually striving to bechampions to give you in-depth, investigative reporting on strategies andsolutions within the industry. But they can't do it without your help. Weneed to hear about your experiences.
We all know the industry is changing. It's questionable whether some ofthose changes are for the best. I'm sure State Farm can answer that onefor you real quick. In fact, you may want to read and route this issuethroughout your company because our cover story is on fighting fraud andhow some companies are using technology to make it easier. The challenge inwriting on this topic is that some insurers aren't willing to go on therecord about what they are or aren't doing to fight fraud. No wonder it'sone of the most draining loss categories within the industry. Maybe if wehad more champions sharing stories, fraud would be less of a financialburden so we could focus on making money instead of losing it.
