If youre the CIO of a property/casualty insurance carrier, you can help your company achieve best of breed performance. What does best of breed mean? Which companies have already attained this status? Can their performance be replicated?

Those were some of the key questions I intended to answer in a study I concluded in November in cooperation with the Insurance Services Office (ISO). Based on my analysis with ISO of the top 100 P&C companies (see How Were the Best of Breed Selected? p. 41), interviews with two best of breed companies (although my research covered all six companies, only Progressive Corp. and Motorists were willing to comment), industry analysts, and ratings agencies, I compiled the answers to these questions. I was able to identify the most profitably growing P&C companies, analyze how these best of breed perform key activities, and highlight the contribution of technology and CIOs in achieving best of breed financial results.

The six best of breed insurers lead the P&C industry in profitability and growth. According to an ISO analysis using data from A.M. Best Company, the best of breed earned 1997 to 2001 average combined ratios 7.4 percent below the industry average while growing premiums 6.2 percent faster. And the stock prices of three publicly traded best of breed grew between two and 11 times faster than the S&P 500 between 1988 and 2002.