Odds Against Bush Say Foreign Insurance Execs

Odds Against Bush Say Foreign Insurance Execs

NU Online News Service, July 19, 3:45 p.m. EDT?Foreign and some U.S. insurance executives polled at an international industry meeting said George Bush looks like a loser, and their biggest business problems include keeping good staff, productivity, efficiency and expense controls.[@@]

The findings were reported by ACORD, the Pearl River, N.Y.-based insurance standards organization, which sampled opinion at the annual Internal Insurance Society meeting last week in London.

Among the more than 200 participants who were polled, 38 percent were listed as from the United States and Canada, 32 percent from Europe and 20 percent came from Asia and the Pacific, with smaller numbers from Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere.

Asked if George Bush would win the next U.S. Presidential election, 60 percent said no and 39 percent said yes.

Queried on their most pressing operation issue, 30 percent said it was keeping and building organizational talent and another 30 percent said productivity, efficiency and expense controls. Another 22 percent said the most pressing operational issue was meeting customer demands.

Forty-one percent of the poll participants said their most pressing financial issue was maintaining competitive pricing with adequate profitability, while 21 percent said it was managing risk. The rest were almost equally divided among concerns with measuring and reporting financial results, capital management allocation and meeting regulatory requirements.

Asked their most pressing overall issue, 30 percent of respondents said it was taking advantage of new opportunities. Managing risk was most pressing for 20 percent and another 20 percent said it was keeping and building organizational talent.

Only 13 percent reported maintaining competitive pricing as a pressing issue, while 11 percent said it was productivity, efficiency and expense controls and six percent mentioned recovery from adverse conditions.

Questioned about growth issues, 20 percent said recovery from adverse conditions was most pressing, and 55 percent said it was taking advantage of new market opportunities. Thirteen percent said industry consolidation was the top growth issue and 12 percent said it was merging or acquiring for needed growth.

Fifty percent of the poll participants said their greatest challenge in information technology was integration of old and new systems, followed by human resistance to change (22 percent) and connecting/sharing data with business partners (also 22 percent). Only six percent said an adequate information technology budget was the big challenge.

Most persons answering the poll, 53 percent, put themselves in the general manager category, when asked to describe their corporate roles. Thirty three percent listed their role as "other."

Forty-nine percent of respondents said they handled most lines of insurance, while 22 percent said their line was mostly non-life, 23 percent said it was mostly life, five percent were in specialties and one percent in health.