Back in 1879, Gilbert and Sullivan created an amusing character named Major-General Stanley in the light opera "The Pirates of Penzance." He enters singing a song satirizing the idea of the "modern" educated British Army officer of the latter 19th century:
"I am the very model of a modern major-general, I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral… I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical; I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical; about binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news; with many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse."
Today, near the start of the 21st century (and without tongue planted in cheek), insurers seek the qualities of the model modern major-general to develop predictive modeling expertise. With access to "information vegetable, animal and mineral" and ever-advancing knowledge of "matters mathematical," carriers have available the tools to become business leaders.
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