I love San Diego. The climate, the people, the food, the sightseeing — it all adds up to a travel experience like no other. Mimosa brunch at Currant American Brasserie. Strolls in sun-kissed Balboa Park. The rooftop pool at the Westgate Hotel. Cold beers at Hamilton's Tavern, one of the best dive bars in town. The Sunday sangria special at the Prado. Dinners after dark in Little Italy … all sensations to be savored on every visit.
So when I learned last year that RIMS' annual conference and exhibition would be held in one of my favorite cities, I was looking forward to this yearly intersection of insurance professionals and risk managers more than ever before, and this one did not disappoint.
I'm not the only one who enjoys getting ready for “the Insurance Prom,” which I've taken to calling it — a moniker that got some good laughs this year from other participants. (I must credit a certain lovely insurance company CMO whom we featured on our cover one year ago for that amusing phrase.) All day every day spirits are high, and everyone in attendance has their “game face” on well into the wee hours; this is one reason why everyone goes home exhausted. Remaining on point for a day's worth of meetings or interviews, followed by a string of mandatory cocktail parties — there's a phrase I never thought I'd live to write — can be challenging even for the most seasoned veteran.
This year, though, I couldn't help but feel a distinct sense of trepidation among a lot of the industry figures I spoke with, a vague feeling of uneasiness. Not fear, but a sense that many people were determined to be as sharp as possible at every interaction, almost as if their positions depended upon it. In an industry in which merger-and-acquisition activity has become a popular strategy for achieving leverage through scale — a trend that is certainly expected to continue — many individuals seemed to be more measured, more careful with every word and action — even over drinks, in some cases.
Good news, it would seem, is in short supply in the Property & Casualty market, given the current soft conditions. It's extremely difficult to get rate, even with the best underwriting expertise on your side. And even if you possess that, a competitor is undoubtedly trying to poach your top talent right now.
Much of that feeling seems to dissipate, however, when you show up with an etched-glass statuette.
This year at RIMS I had the pleasure of personally delivering NU's Risk Manager Choice Award trophies to three insurers: AIG, FM Global and Travelers. All three rated highly in a national survey (conducted for us by Flaspöhler: Part of NMG Consulting) of risk managers who were asked to select their go-to carriers in a variety of product lines and rate them among factors of great importance to their work, such as underwriting capability, financial value and claims handling, among others.
The pride I experienced among the executives I met while delivering the award statuettes was palpable. The positive news of having their company's excellence recognized by a national publication — and by some of the clients whom they serve — was greeted with a greater magnitude of thanks than I expected. As I told them, the honor was well earned; all I did was deliver the good news.
Even before RIMS, when I told AIG's CEO of Commercial Rob Schimek about the carrier's superb showing in the Risk Manager Choice Awards, he was ecstatic, and eager to know when the news would be made public so that he could share it with his team. I'd made his day.
Everyone's working harder than ever these days, regardless of industry. Celebrating and acknowledging our victories — however great or small — is something that we all should do more often, especially in our professional lives. If you have a good news story to share with your employees, by all means, share it. For if good news is indeed in short supply, we're the ones who have to take it when it comes —and remind ourselves that we're all at least a little better than we often give ourselves credit for.
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Shawn Moynihan
Shawn Moynihan is Editor-in-Chief of National Underwriter Property & Casualty. A St. John’s University alum, Moynihan has earned 11 Jesse H. Neal Awards, the Pulitzers of the business press; seven Azbee Awards, from the American Society of Business Press Editors; two Folio Awards; and a SABEW award, from the Society of American Business Editors & Writers. Prior to joining ALM, he served as Managing Editor/Online Editor of journalism institution Editor & Publisher, the trade bible of the newspaper industry. Moynihan also has held editorial positions with AOL, Metro New York, and Newhouse Newspapers. He can be reached at [email protected].
