What If We Don’t?
Don’t let the talent challenge become the reason you don’t move. The future starts here.
As you turn the pages of this month’s magazine, you’ll read about shifting risk and alternative capital. Catastrophe insurance, for example, is doing a lot of shifting.
Florida is trying to shift policies from state-run insurers to the private sector. The Sunshine State has been eerily lucky on the hurricane front lately, but when that luck runs out, insurers—and the state—need to have the capital to withstand a one-two punch.
Other shifts bring Wall Street into the fold—think giant corporate risk placed in the capital markets.
With these shifts come opportunities. Brokers who can master the strategic and technical intricacies of these markets can become invaluable advisors to their clients. It’s about talent, an issue that continues to percolate.
I’ve said before and will say again how awestruck I am by the amount of noise out there regarding the future of the industry. Words like disruption, realignment, human capital, organic growth, emerging risks, cyber, data, analytics, customer behavior, the customer experience, regulatory overreach, capital standards and so on dominate the headlines. What’s the big deal? All of it is a reflection of the world we live in.
The differentiator is how you and your colleagues are thinking about these things and acting on them. As your business partner, we are here to provide information and ideas to help you make strategic decisions when changes stare you in the face.
Which brings me to my point about the future.
It is not really news anymore that the talent pool from which to select the next generation of industry leaders is shrinking. The demographics are very clear on what the workforce will look like over the next 10 to 20 years.
It’s scary, yes. But my suggestion to you is not to let the talent challenge become the reason you don’t move on something. The strategy around talent has to be a CEO’s personal priority. There are no easy HR solutions; there are no cookie-cutter answers that you can plug in. Every organization has its own culture and is different. This is an area that can’t be solved for you; rather, it is your job.
If human capital—understanding it and executing on it—is not a core topic on your C-suite’s agenda, you need to reevaluate…quickly. Compiling the next generation of your team is just as essential a strategic issue as who your customer is and will be going forward. Case in point, which came across my email just recently:
CFO asks CEO: “What happens if we invest in developing our people and then they leave us?”
CEO: “What happens if we don’t and they stay?”
Compiling the next generation of your team is just as essential a strategic issue as who your customer is and will be going forward.
Today it’s even more important to invest in leadership training for your future stars because of all the issues they are tackling and the pace of change they need to keep up with. And one thing is clear to me regardless of when you started in this business—your success or failure is based on the people who are implementing the ideas. It’s always been about people.
You may not see change overnight, but at least starting to think about your future may one day lead to more productivity, happier people and bigger profits. The opportunities are there for those who are ready to take them.
