In a world of heightened competition with emerging threats and general business environmental changes, the “war” for talent takes on a special urgency. Millennials make up almost half of the US workforce and Gen Z is starting to graduate from college, meaning that understanding the younger members of the talent pool is crucial.
Insurance is rarely the “tip of the spear” in terms of technology innovation. Yet increasingly, insurers need to be aware of broader developments in the economy and adjacent industries and carefully consider the implications for their businesses.
The increasingly complex regulatory environment, along with ongoing technological gains largely propelled by the new emerging industry of fintech, have transformed the very nature of financial fraud and given rise to a new breed of adversary more technologically advanced than in decades past. Over the past two decades, the chief risk officer (CRO) and chief information security officer (CISO) fought different foes on disparate fronts. However, the change in adversarial motives in the cybercrime epoch while still harboring the same anomie has evolved from website defacements over the last 20 years to a US$1.5 trillion global shadow economy equal to the gross domestic product (GDP) of Russia that trades in data as the new commodity—now more valuable than oil.
At this time of year, everyone in accounting, investments, and securities departments who have to close out the end of the month, quarter, and year dread the long days and weekend work. It is a time of high stress for these employees—the pressure is so high, and the fear of making or finding a mistake and of not making the year-end numbers has everyone burned out before the New Year even gets started. I know and understand firsthand because I live with one of these people and have several of them who are great friends. What I also understand even better, again with firsthand knowledge, is that working in these roles within the insurance industry is even worse than in other industries.