Several years back I was on the staff of SUCCESS magazine, which focused on entrepreneurial business. That position brought a fellow named W. Clement Stone onto my radar screen. I learned he published Success Unlimited, a prior version of my magazine, a few decades earlier. In one of life's interesting coincidences, it seems Stone and I shared an interest in at least a couple of business sectors. Stone also built the Combined Insurance Company of America. His company, which he started with only $100, changed its name in 1987 to a little outfit named Aon Corporation.

One of my favorite Stone quotes is the following: "Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star." This advice, however, prompted me to wonder, Is the moon attainable, i.e., is perfection possible? I know "they" say all perfection takes is practice, but I also know no one is perfect and neither is any system, no matter how good. If there were a perfect system, lots of vendors and IT departments would be hanging a "Gone fishing" sign on their doors.

So, what this then means is we're really not working toward perfection but, more accurately, toward the highest possible standards–and that's a worthy mission. What exactly constitutes this mission in insurance IT? Insurance advisory firm Financial Insights recently published its "Top 10 Strategic Initiatives for Global Insurance for 2006." I found three of the top five initiatives particularly significant.