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Also in this issue:

• Cover
• Sustainable industry leadership by Gil Lowerre
• MarketVision™ 2006—The employer perspective
  by Bonnie Brazzell
• Confidence in the voluntary market is up!
• Who can we buy?
• ROP products in the voluntary market
• Enrollment practices in the voluntary market
• Enrollment: selling vs. advising
• It’s almost time to see how your 2006 sales measured up!
• Are voluntary underwriting guidelines loosening?
• Company executives vs. company strategy
• Manufacture and distribute

Past Issues

• 2007
• 2006

Winter 2007 / No. 70

Company executives vs. company strategy

It might be the result of a retirement, a promotion or reshuffling, or just a changing of the guard. But the insurer has appointed new leaders. We might expect a new sales staff with different field relationships attracting different types of producers. We might look for new and revised products, possibly a whole new emphasis. And the services will probably change, eliminating some, enhancing others, maybe charging for still others.

But what will probably not change is the result. After watching more than a few of these, we can expect that business will initially pick up as new producers enter, then even out (as some old producers leave) at a new level. From a distance, there was a lot of activity, but we basically incurred a new set of start-up costs to wind up roughly where we were.

The company has an offering that is executive-based. The value offered depends on the executive who is in charge: his background, preferences, mandate, etc. And yet this approach violates the principles of clarity and consistency (see the article Sustainable Industry Leadership elsewhere in this issue).

Companies need to have a firm strategy that dictates their value proposition and have executives charged with implementing rather than starting over. Executive success should be measured through implementation success, not creative destruction. Let’s get to the point where the value we bring is determined by our strategy rather than by the executive of the day.