They periodically re-evaluate their distribution options, both to fine-tune the productivity of their existing sales force as well as to explore the possibility of adding new channels to reach prospects with different needs and preferences.

The driving force behind such innovative carriers is their commitment to differentiate themselves and keep improving the customer experience so they don't have to compete on price alone. In short, they constantly look to add value to the equation for their clients to bolster both acquisition and retention rates. That means adapting to the evolving demands of insurance consumers, especially when it comes to meeting their rising expectations for 24/7 service via multiple channels.

The same message on adaptation applies internally as well as externally. Leading insurers realize that despite the increasing importance of technology, insurance is still a people business. Cutting-edge carriers should therefore continuously adapt to the needs of an increasingly diverse and ever-evolving workforce.

To accomplish this, insurers must make adjustments to develop and retain the top talent they already have within the company. But they also need to recruit the most attractive candidates—not just from outside the organization but from other industries as well to import the skill sets required to keep an insurer in the forefront of innovation.

Such changes are not easy to contemplate or implement. But the longer strategic decisions and initiatives are delayed, the more difficult it might be to catch up with—let alone surpass—the competition over the course of what promises to be a turbulent decade ahead.

As we contemplate the competitive landscape, senior-level insurance executives are likely to confront a series of interdependent challenges that should be addressed for carriers to thrive, not just in 2013 but well beyond. We address these issues in greater detail in a pair of 2013 Outlook reports—one for P&C, and the other for Life and Annuities—available online to readers.

Some of these issues are financial, relating to how insurers can keep boosting their top and bottom lines, whether that means considering alternative investment options in response to low interest rates or taking advantage of merger or acquisition opportunities to access new markets and achieve economies of scale.

Some are related to marketing, in terms of how carriers might more effectively reach and serve clients, such as capitalizing on the fastest-growing segments in a slowly recovering economy or making innovation part of their DNA when it comes to product development.

A number involve management conundrums, including how to better leverage technology or turn enterprise risk management from a compliance requirement into a game-changing differentiator.

Meanwhile, regulatory issues inevitably come to the forefront, challenging carriers to adapt to the changing rules of the game, both here in the United States as well as globally.

There are undoubtedly additional threats and opportunities on the radar of individual carriers, and each year brings its own unforeseen problems to address.

But while it's relatively easy to identify the challenges facing insurance companies, it's a lot harder to determine how an individual player should respond. Each course of action has its own risks and rewards, but perhaps the one certainty is that doing nothing to change how an insurer operates is usually not a viable option over the long term.

Even carriers that consider themselves successful under their own version of the status quo should regularly reassess the possible vulnerabilities of their business model in a rapidly evolving economy and insurance marketplace. Each challenge they face is both a potential threat as well as a potential opportunity, depending on how a particular carrier chooses to address it.

One factor in favor of insurers is that unlike the day-to-day economic conditions in which they operate, these issues are usually very much within their control, leaving them ultimately in charge of their own destinies.