“It sure is a boring summer with nothing exciting happening in our business”, said the old timer who likes to feel the vibes of change. He of course was talking about the sleepy life insurance industry. He also has become so accustomed to rapid and exaggerated change plus unwelcome headlines that he no longer labels the now routine noteworthy.
Lets start with the KPMG Ethics Survey 2000 that I have read snippets of but since I am too frugal with my time I have not read every word. For those interested in the survey it is available at www.kpmg.ca .It is full of all the great statistics of how ethics are not being nurtured and few companies give this a priority. My first reaction was to resurrect the “semper ubi, sub ubi” article from MO’s archives. Then I said to myself that that windmill has already been challenged. On questioning a friend of mine who is close to the MBA circuit and continuing education for executives I learn that ethics courses are in such great demand people are being turned away. I thought the ethics of an organization were instilled in new employees by the old guard and the leader. Has this become so specialized that it is now outsourced?
If one (the proverbial employee of nondescript features) has not learnt enviable ethics before entering the workforce can one ever learn? If one has not learnt ethical values from one’s first leaders can one ever learn? If the actions and verbal utterances of one’s current leader are not reflective and definitive of true ethical behavior can one ever learn?
Can a daylong course on ethics and a certificate hung on the wall equate to an insurers integrity being of high ethical standards? Something like two thirds of companies said they are implementing practices but there is some concern for the amount of time to fulfill those practices. Of the responding companies some 42% have a senior level manager that has the ethics conundrum under their list of to do’s. Training in ethics is provided by about 39% of the companies in KPMG’s survey. I am sure no company is spending more time than the Royal Bank conglomerate who just had the bad fortune of being at the very public end of intense scrutiny over in my opinion ethical behavior! Just imagine what has not been uncovered in our financial services industry. I take heart in the KPMG survey that included about 1.5% life insurers and I will imagine they are all on the higher ground.
Before the ink had dried on the above paragraphs I am stunned by the news my industry has taken a body blow to the kidneys with the Transamerica immediate and complete disclosure of their problems with a few staff. Could anything have been done in the midst of the burdensome acquisition of one company by another that would have at all costs maintained the sanctity of Transamerica’s reputation? Possibly not. The compliment goes to the leadership who immediately went public, took remedial action, avoided the pitfalls of mendacity and limited damage as best they could in the circumstances.
Dull summer? Not a chance. Our financial services industry has had a wake up call and the onus is on all participants to elevate ethical behavior to a priority. Training courses may keep the issue alive and actually instill the no nonsense importance of ethical conduct but if you have in your midst someone(s) whose ethical instructions in early life training leave a lot to be desired “you gotta problem mista”. Finding the rotten apple in a barrel of red Delicious only happens when you hand wash each apple.
In sharp contradictory contrast to the ethics survey is the Queen’s University School of Business survey of participating CEOs in Ontario. Of the top 12 challenges facing CEOs on the Queen’s list the only one that can be stretched to include ethics is the challenge of finding staff that possess the right personal qualities in addition to their technical skill.
This study would have warranted days if not weeks of public and private scrutiny had it been in the “old days”. Today it is just another study of our accepted practices that lean heavily on performance judged by numbers here and now, versus long-term implications of ethical versus unethical behavior. This should not be taken as ho hum! Rudimentary ethics emerges like zymurgy. Over decades and even centuries our “norm” has been forged like the fermentation of wine. Is being forthright always the same as never telling a lie? Is exaggeration in the same leak as abuse of information? Is a conflict of interest always a conflict of interest or does it depend on the consequences? I remain a student of the ethics debacle and hope that in time any doubt about the definition ebbs, which would mean I have found the holy grail (or at least someone let me glance it while there was still time). With age and an ever increasing scope of acquaintances I learn that the definition is now more elusive than ever since there remains no one definition of business ethical behavior. If there were would there be any employees in the tobacco business?
The prize awaits the person who can guarantee a test to weed out the ethical behavior that is not in compliance with the leaders which one hopes is in harmony with the Board and its traditions. The problem is whose ethical behavior is the model since it is on may occasions so subjective. We certainly do not want to leave it to the press to decide.
Next we have the more mundane within the insurance vill. The merger first here in our Canadian community of CU and NU (sort a sounds like canoe), which then transformed into parents saying sell the whole thing. Add to that the potential but soon stop of the sale of C.N.A. life operations globally, ING continuing to acquire NA companies especially Aetna’s financial services side and you have lots of excitement. Talk heats up that Canada and Clarica will be devoured by the likes of any number of large European mega companies in less than 30 months. Banks can come into the US life market. Royal Bank buys into the US life industry. Underwriters are being given signing bonuses of considerable sums plus salaries that finally distinguish them from senior clerks. Pricing actuaries who can make a product price plummet and a reinsurer pay dearly for the privilege of acquiring the risk are in demand that exceeds the demand for a Stanley Cup team in Toronto. Reinsurers are happy that so much risk is being transferred to them since it is their specialty.
News has come out that some of the insurance Web site sites are still not making money. Enormous losses abound but optimism runs rampant. The expectations are that everybody will be enthusiastically searching out sites to buy life insurance. The summer is full of growing e-commerce optimism for the public consumption but finally from under the terrible income statements comes the first glimmer of concern that life insurance is sold not bought.
A small string of words in The Poisonwood Bible on page 309 sort of sums up our life industry as we head towards the end of summer. In fact not even I could have written and been edited into such a distinctive combination of words.
“I am telling you what I’m telling you. Don’t try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the centre and everything coming out equal. When you are good, bad things can still happen. And if you are bad, you can still be lucky.”
We certainly have become numb to change and so blasé that even the pundits are bored. Guess we need to make some greater bad happen.
