| | May 20168CIOReviewIN MY OPINIONRecently I came across a survey conducted by the Hartford Financial Services Group. The study reports that millennials entering the workforce are likely to avoid insurance industry as a career choice. What it found is that the young generation, think the insurance industry is "boring" and only 4 percent viewed it as an appealing way to make a living. Insurance finished 16th out of the 18 different sectors identified in the survey. Other poor performers included retail, construction and manufacturing, all at 7 percent. Arts & Entertainment topped millennial job wish list at 40 percent, followed by education, 36 percent. Another industry news report questioned how insurance industry was missing from Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which is a good example of a contributing factor as to why younger generation thinks we are boring. I know there are isolated examples of insurance companies leveraging technology in new and unique ways. It's our weak participation in the broader technology discussion that creates the perception of an industry that is still anchored in doing things the old way.Before we further delve into the survey and news reports, I want us to look at the insurance industry and its connection with technology. JoAnne Yates, Sloan Distinguished Professor of Management, in her study "Early Interactions between the Life Insurance and Computer Industries: The Prudential's Edmund Berkeley and The Society of Actuaries Committee," talks about the role insurance industry has played in the early use of computer technology. Insurance industry was a critical consumer of the predecessor of modern day computers, punched card tabulators, as soon as before twentieth century. For insurance companies, preparation and use of data and information were as important as developing new product and services. One can say data and information was their primary product. Hence, data and document processing formed the basis of an insurance company's operation. Therefore, it is not a surprise that insurance companies were also one of the early adopters of computer technology. Professor Yates talks about two significant developments that illustrate early connections between insurance and developing computer technology. First Edmund Berkeley of Prudential and Co-founder of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in mid-1940's initiated serious discussions within Prudential and with potential vendors on the technical specifications required to make computers useful for insurance applications. Second the establishment of a committee to examine insurance applications of the new technology by Society of Actuaries.Berkeley's activities during this time were very similar to what any savvy marketer would do: educating the stakeholder within the company as well as the insurance industry in general about the technology, and communicating and providing feedback to the partners (vendors) about the business and industry needs. Berkeley truly leveraged the strength of industry bodies by presenting Calling Edmund Berkeley...By Feroz Merchhiya, CTO-Director of Technology, California Insurance Guarantee AssociationFeroz Merchhiya
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