Analytics for Insurance

Chapter 14Conclusions and Reflections

When Tom Peters in his book Re-Imagine¹ invited us to think differently about ourselves and our business environment, he might have had the world of Big Data and Analytics in mind. His book was written in 2003 when the Big Data story was still in its earliest stages and many industries were still in the relatively dark ages of the information revolution. He described a future upheaval in the work done by blue collar workers and placed a spotlight on ‘White Collar world’ which talked about ‘automation of white-collar business processes within the firm and amongst its business partners.’

Beyond this he also painted a picture of a world where a micro-chip would replace a $35,000-a-year staffer who does mundane paper processing by automating the system, and even threatens the $150,000-a-year manager that the £35k staffer used to report to. It is easy to be cynical as predictions can be either right or wrong. Correct predictions are viewed with reverence; wrong ones are explained away or just forgotten. But Peters went even further when he described (in 2003) that the next 25 years would bring ‘astounding’ advances for the organization and for individuals. That was over 10 years ago and if he is to be proved right then there are only 10 years or so left.

The potential contrasts between the old world and the new are significant. Each represents a sea change in thinking, operations and behaviors, e.g., as shown in Table 14.1. Collectively they ...