Why the Future of Insurance Talent is Purple? A speaker at an InsureTech conference recently bamboozled delegates with a stirring speech about the benefits of hiring “purple people.” These “purples” will deliver innovation to enable digital transformation he explained. Cue uneasy shuffling in seats as the assembled delegates turned to their mobile phones to find out what was on the conference lunch menu that day!
His point though was that new insurance technologies and applications delivered by purple power drive efficiencies and improve productivity. So who is this new breed of purple person? In a nutshell, they are people who understand both insurance and technology. They are not “red” insurance people or “blue” tech people. In other words, they are a 21st Century hybrid. So why do COOs and CIOs need to understand this concept?
They are kind and hardworking
In this brave new world, Managing General Agent start-ups are exploring InsureTech solutions to develop and evolve their business. Costs are a big concern. These organisations often need bespoke solutions, however, they need the right people, processes and technology in place to drive development. Training has a vital role to play in this process. Technology-related insurance challenges, around where data is stored in a multi-global carrier meanwhile, are also rising the Boardroom agenda. Purple people will be the most employable people going forward. The future of insurance talent will be purple.
They will be the new norm. Coders will be in demand revolutionising insurance businesses so a new mindset will be required. When I take 18-year-old interns around Lloyd’s they laugh when they see suited and booted broker types in grey suits shipping 3kg slipcases to their underwriters. There are still too many vested interests in this market, however, so it’s going to take a big cultural transformation to turn this 350-year-old ship around.
These purple people will be able to adapt even if the principles and foundations of 350 years of Lloyd’s are not going to change without a fight. Let’s face it though, the settlement of an insurance contract is the same now as it was then but the complex societal changes, we are currently experiencing will inevitably be disruptive. Technology, people, process – this is the future.
Cognitive insurance technologies will change the way we operate as a business so modern-day COOs take note. Purple people with their highly employable mix of business and technology skills have a major role to play going forward.
I believe that the concept of “purple people” was first propagated in a 2010 blog post by Wayne Eckerson. According to Eckerson: “purple people possess a mix of business and technology skills that enable them to excel in business intelligence and analytics. A similar notion arose, independently, at insurance company XL Catlin (now AXA XL, of course). Jim Wilson, a lead data engineer at the company, was chatting with his boss, Kimberly Holmes, about a problem that plagued the company’s “strategic analytics” group. According to Holmes, Wilson used the “purple people” analogy to describe a particular problem.”
“The business people, the actuaries, know what data they need and can define requirements, but typically don’t have the skill set to design a data architecture that gives them the data they need. Technology people typically don’t understand the business requirements, but they can design the data architectures. It’s like the people in IT speak blue, the people in business speak red, but we need people who speak purple to create an appropriate solution.”
According to this philosophy, purple people can translate the needs of the business for data and analytical systems into high-level designs for those systems. They are speaking a new language.
These are people who can step in and help to create, monitor, and modify cognitive systems within organizations.
- They can bridge the business and organizational requirements with new technology solutions.
- They are people who love technology.
- They are even passionate about it, and certainly not intimidated by automated systems.
Paradigm shift is a necessity
To succeed in a market like Lloyd’s, however, today’s future COOs and CEOs will need to operate at the intersection of technology and business needs. This is going to require huge cultural change. It doesn’t mean that everyone is going to have to learn how to code. It does mean though that insurance people of the future are going to know to have an intelligent conversation with a coder or API developer.
It’s still not too late of course for current market incumbents to retrain or learn new skills. I’m sure that a few older insurance dogs out there can learn new tricks. Certainly, as someone who has walked the streets of EC3 for more years than I care to remember it would be foolish for me to claim that I am a technology boffin, but I know plenty of people who are. Today’s COOs need to surround themselves with these talented and clever people because we are at an inflexion point in our market’s history and the future of insurance talent is here.
Forget Blockchain and advanced A.I., for now. Not because these things are not important and potentially transformative. They can and will shape the future of insurance talent. I just believe that we have plenty of current, practical technologies such as DA SATS, PPL, ECF2 Write Back claims, Lloyd’s Bridge and many others all being driven by the efforts and solutions offered through LM TOM that require purple expertise to deliver cost-effective operational change today.
Business, underwriting, claims and technology skills are valuable in themselves but are far more valuable when integrated and combined. So just remember you heard it here first, the future is purple!
About the author:
Paul Rich has for the last couple of years been trading as an independent Consultant, advising companies across the market on how best to execute operational strategy and deliver on best practice governance around centrally based operational functions.
Paul has an in-depth understanding of insurance markets, particularly the Lloyd’s and London Insurance Market. He has been involved in a variety of market modernisation initiatives over the years and was also the founding chair of the International Underwriting Associations (IUA) Delegated Authority Underwriting Group.
Driven to deliver operational best practices, based on evidence through real-time reporting, Paul has a proven record of delivery across central operations functions at several different insurance-based entities, including Brokers, Managing Agents, and Coverholders / Delegated Authority propositions in the Company and Lloyd’s markets. He is passionate about embedding efficiently delivered operational processes, supported by ‘best in breed’ technology solutions, aiming to drive costs down and margins up. He has extensive strategic engagement experience, adept at managing multi-tiered, complex business relationships and operating models.
Written by Paul Rich
Paul has an in-depth understanding of insurance markets, particularly the Lloyd’s and London Insurance Market. He has been involved in a variety of market modernisation initiatives over the years and was also the founding chair of the International Underwriting Associations (IUA) Delegated Authority Underwriting Group.Driven to deliver operational best practice, based on evidence through real time reporting, Paul has a proven record of delivery across central operations functions at a number of different insurance-based entities, including Brokers, Managing Agents, and Coverholders / Delegated Authority propositions in the Company and Lloyd’s markets. He is passionate about embedding efficiently delivered operational processes, supported by ‘best in breed’ technology solutions, aiming to drive costs down and margins up. He has extensive strategic engagement experience, adept at managing multi-tiered, complex business relationships and operating models.Paul has for the last couple of years been trading as an independent Consultant, advising companies across the market on how best to execute operational strategy and deliver on best practice governance around centrally based operational functions.
LinkedIn
