"Insurance is essentially a community enterprise, social in character but economic in consequence. It touches all phases of commercial endeavor and personal welfare. It creates a stabilizing influence upon business and human relations by reducing uncertainties and risks to a degree of comparative security and provides protection against the losses involved."What has changed since 1948 when Alexander Hamilton Institute Inc. published this quote in "Modern Business?"
The speed at which insurance companies transacted business was certainly much slower, largely due to the lack of automation. But the concern about where new business would come from, along with pressure to shore up "economic consequences," i.e., improved net earned premium levels, was probably comparative to today's expectations: Do more with less-faster and cheaper.
And although the word "technology" does not appear in the book's index, the authors, business professors at New York University, University of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania and the vice president of what was then New York-based The Great American Indemnity Co., shared the same quest: Access and enhance increased levels of industry knowledge in a way that facilitates and sustains growth.
We at Insurance Networking News believe that quest is just as important today as it was in 1948. Fortunately, we have the technology necessary to make it possible for us to facilitate and deliver the knowledge and information necessary to sustain your growth.
Since creating INN's new print format in January, we have been busy behind the scenes, evaluating results of our most recent reader survey and creating new ways to present topic-specific information based on the survey results, such as enhanced online education seminars and Web seminars. And, in the spirit of Alexander Hamilton's call to a "community enterprise," we will also enlist your support and the support of other industry experts to help us deliver that knowledge.
The first of what we hope are several INN Executive Insights topic-specific surveys, in collaboration with Financial Insights, an IDC Company, will give you an opportunity to provide us with feedback on your sourcing options. The survey will be available on our Web site (
Like every insurance enterprise, we are called upon to continuously evaluate, update and enhance our product. So stay tuned to both our print edition and our Web site, as we continue to deliver on that promise.
