Paper presented at the 2012 edition of CIIN professional forum
BEYOND PROFESSIONALISM: MAKING A DIFFERENCE
A PAPER PRESENTED BY ALHAJI BALA ZAKARIYA’U, CHAIRMAN NIGER INSURANCE PLC, AT THE 2012 EDITION OF THE PROFESSIONALS’ FORUM OF THE CHARTERED INSURANCE INSTITUTE OF NIGERIA HELD ON THURSDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER, 2012
1. INTRODUCTION
I would first register my profound gratitude to the President-in-Council for the opportunity afforded me to express my views on the theme of this year’s Professionals’ Forum, which is beyond professionalism: making a difference. I feel pleased and privileged to also observe that many distinguished professionals of our Institute have, in the past, led the main theme discussion. I am happy therefore to join the list of these great men and women who distinguished themselves in the service of our Institute, on this unique platform.
The Professionals’ Forum of the Institute remains a veritable focal point for every qualified member to share in the rich experience of very senior members of the Institute amongst others. May I for this reason commend the Council and Management of the Institute for sustaining the platform where such engagement is made possible.
It is widely agreed that passing any professional examination no matter how daunting it is, is only the beginning of building a professional career in any chosen field and Insurance services profession is not different in this regard. Sustaining the standard of knowledge is also very critical for making a difference.
My intervention on this topic today will attempt to highlight the prospect of professionalizing insurance services and linking such endeavor with positive change to practice of providing insurance services to our immediate environment.
I am assuming however that we all strive to be professional insurers with the sole aim of ultimately impacting positively on the practice of insurance.
The questions then arise as to:
- How do we professionalize?
- Why make a difference? and
- How do we actually make a difference?
The three key words to start with, are Professional, professionalism and professionalize and it is good we put them in the proper context of the discussion, knowing that all have varied meanings, for different occasions.
A professional here will be referred to as a person who has undergone a special course of study and works in a skilled profession, for our purpose here, insurance services.
Professionalism is a state of having professional qualities, the state of being a professional, as opposed to being an Amateur. To professionalize is, to give professional qualities, to any given subject. Insurance as we all know is a skill, so is considered professionalized and to become a professional insurance service provider, you ought to have become a professional, you do that by writing and passing an approved examination as you have all done, and generally conduct yourselves in a professional manner on the long way to acquiring higher skills and relevant knowledge of the profession.
Let me disappoint you by saying that the acquisition of skill and knowledge of the profession through examination is the easy part. The difficult steps to making a difference or better still a positive difference is the mindset you are coming into the profession with i.e. THE WHY, that drives you into the profession. It is good for you to reflect as to why you chose Insurance as a career, because all else depend on that, in your professional life. I suggest that your WHY or fundamental aim must be to make a positive difference or simplified as promising to leave the industry or your various companies better than you met them.
The truth is, how we conduct our professional life has an impact on the type of industry we shall bequeath to the next generation.
You will hand over a better industry than we have now if you strive to make a positive difference out of the skills you have acquired, of course the reverse will be the case if you choose to behave otherwise. That is how powerful your individual and collective strength should appear to you at this moment.
Before I started writing this paper I had two options of giving an academic talk or doing a non-academic but practical rendering of how to make a positive difference as a professional. I must confess, it is a difficult choice for me to make. I will allow you to judge which option I finally chose at the end of my presentation of the paper.
2. INTEGRITY: WITHOUT IT NOTHING WORKS
A most celebrated research work on the subject of integrity was conducted by three eminent scholars WERNER H. ERHARD, MICHAEL C. JENSEN, and STEVE ZAFFRON and titled INTEGRITY: A POSITIVE MODEL THAT INCORPORATES THE NORMATIVE PHENOMENA OF MORALITY, ETHICS AND LEGALITY.
In the abstract and summary of the 126 page research material they posited the following and I read: we present a positive model of integrity that, as we distinguish and define integrity, provides powerful access in increased performance for individuals, groups, organizations and societies. Our model reveals the casual link between integrity and increased performance, quality of life and value-creation for all entities, and provides access to that casual link. Integrity is thus a factor of production as important as knowledge and technology, yet its major role in productivity and performance has been largely hidden or unnoticed, or even ignored by economists and others.
The philosophical discourse and common usage as reflected in dictionary definitions, leaves overlap and confusion among the four phenomena of integrity, morality, ethics and legality. This overlap and confusion confound the four phenomena so that efficacy and potential power of each is seriously diminished.
In this model, we distinguish all four phenomena – integrity, morality, ethics, and legality – as existing within two separate realms. Integrity exists in a positive realm devoid of normative content. Integrity is thus not about good or bad, right or wrong, or what should or should not be. Morality, ethics and legality exist in a normative realm of virtues (that is, they are about good and bad, right or wrong, or what should or should not be). Furthermore, within their respective realms, each of the four phenomena is distinguished as belonging to a distinct and separate domain, and the definition of each as a term is made clear, unambiguous, and non-overlapping.
We distinguish the domain of integrity as the objective state or condition of an object, system, person, group, or organization, entity, and consistent with the first two of the three definitions in Webster’s dictionary, defined integrity as a state or condition of being whole, complete, unbroken, unimpaired, sound, and perfect condition.
We assert that integrity (the condition of being whole and complete) is a necessary condition for workability, and that the resultant level of workability determines for an individual, group, or organization the available opportunity set for performance. Hence, the way we treat integrity in our model provides an unambiguous and actionable access to the opportunity for superior performance, no matter how one defines performance.
For an individual we distinguish integrity as a matter of that person’s word being whole and complete. For a group or organizational entity we define integrity as that group’s or organization’s word being whole and complete. A group’s or organization’s word consists of what is said between the people in that group or organization, and what is said by or on behalf of the group or organization. In that context, we define integrity for an individual, group, or organization as: honoring one’s word.
Oversimplifying somewhat, “honoring one’s word”, as we define it, means you either keep your word, or as soon as you know that you will not, you say that you will not be keeping your word to those who were counting on your word and clean up any mess you caused by not keeping your word. By “keeping your word” we mean doing what you said you would do and by the time you said you would do it.
Honoring your word is also the route to creating whole and complete social and working relationships. In addition, it provides an actionable pathway to earning the trust of others. Perhaps, most importantly, it provides an actionable pathway to being whole and complete with oneself, or in other words to being an integrated person.
Directly related to the above findings therefore, we can confirm that to make a positive difference in your professional life in insurance services you must have integrity. If you have personal integrity you will build insurance organizations and lead insurance organizations that have integrity embedded in their cultures and values.
To ensure that we appreciate the profound nature of integrity as a catalyst for positive behavior, I will also refer extensively to Professor Michael Jensen, one of the co-authors of the researched article above. Professor Jensen gave an interview to the magazine of the Rotman School of Management titled Integrity: without it nothing works. The interview was a follow-up to the same paper under reference.
He went on to admonish that if you are serious about being a person of integrity, you will think very carefully before giving your word to anyone or anything and that you will never give your word to two or more things that are mutually inconsistent.
From the abstract of the study, it is confirmed that if you keep your words you get trusted by others. You cannot succeed as an insurance professional if you are not trusted by others and therefore cannot achieve your aim of having a positive difference on the profession.
I mentioned earlier that the present and future of the industry belongs to us to do as we will with it. My hope is that all of us will improve it through the lesson we just learnt on integrity. Integrity should define our personal and organizational well-being.
For emphasis, let us also focus on the consequence of out of integrity behavior, with a relevant example.
Take a product like a Whole Life Insurance policy and an internal system in any given insurance company. Your Whole Life Insurance policy is a word given to the policy holder that payment will be effected at maturity or to a defined dependent on the death of the policy holder.
The integrity of that policy issued is determined by the fact that payments are made on maturity or at death. Your computer, an internal support system which aids the delivery of that word or promise must have integrity, too, for you to keep your word on the policy.
If deliberately you are unable to pay at maturity, the proceeds of the policy or delay to pay the dependent at the death of the policy holder, you acted out of integrity. Let me assure that there will follow such an act a severe consequence in lost trust, lost businesses and ultimately, the demise of the company with possible professional ruin for you as an individual. That is the extent to which out of integrity behavior could be viewed. I leave you to think of many other examples where Personal or Corporate integrity relates directly to causation of maximum performance for you as a person and your organization. I want you to think deep about how out of integrity behavior would easily lead to missed opportunities, in the long term.
3. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: THE NEED FOR GOOD CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Even where you decide to be self-employed, you will still need to operate within a structured environment and be regulated to conform with the laws and rules of Insurance services business. Governance is therefore a major consideration for all us in the profession. I therefore feel that after integrity we should evaluate also the subject of corporate governance as it would relate to us as Professional Insurers.
In the beginning of this discussion, we set a lofty target of how we intend to professionalize the concept of insurance business, i.e. to move the insurance business to acquire the character of being a profession. We have, as qualified members of the Institute, the skills and the know-how for the business of insurance. What we need after that is to make the services available to the buying public in a simplified manner and in a conducive environment.
To do that, we must set up structures or registered companies defined under the law and regulated by an authority with such powers to do so.
Before, we go into the question of governance of such entities mentioned let me take the liberty of submitting here a study of a classic case of Corporate Governance failure as a thesis for the understanding of the subject.
I am choosing ENRON to lead this aspect of our discussion on GOVERNANCE because the company and the people who managed it, defined more than anything else, the implication of modern business organization for good and for bad. Also that, after ENRON lots of lessons were learnt by professionals of all calling, regulators, governments and all those who have anything to do with corporate governance. Many varied publications, in books and reports are available to you on ENRON and I recommend to you to take interest in all of them for your additional education on the subject.
In a reflection of what ENRON means for Management and Culture of the modern business corporation, Professor Jeffrey Gordon of University of Chicago law review posited and I will quote extensively from that fundamental study as follows:
The Enron case challenges some of the core beliefs and practices that have underpinned various positions in the debates about law and governance, including mergers and acquisitions, since the 1980s. In particular, Enron raises at least the following problems for the accepted model of corporate governance.
First, it provides another set of reasons to question the strength of efficient market hypothesis, here, the company’s dizzyingly high stock price despite transparently irrational reliance on its auditor’s compromised certification.
Second, it undermines faith in the corporate governance mechanism – the monitoring Board – that has been offered as a substitute for unfettered shareholder access to corporate control. In particular, the Board’s capacity to project the integrity of financial disclosure has not kept pace with the increasing reliance on stock price performance in measuring and rewarding managerial performance.
Third, it suggests the existence of tradeoffs in the use of stock option in executive compensation because of the potential pathologies of the risk – preferring management team.
Fourth, it shows that poor fit between stock-base employee compensation and employee retirement planning. More generally, raises questions about the shift in financial planner, and away from defined benefit plans, which impose some of the risk and fiduciary planning obligations on firms.
Although the disclosure, monitoring and other failures lead to useful reforms, Enron also reminds us that there is a problem that cannot be solved but only be contained in the tension between imperfectly fashioned incentive and self-restraint.
The important points to understand and draw from the findings above is that efficient market hypothesis, the bedrock of capitalism is not always a valid reason for efficient allocation of resources nor a guarantee for ethical and accepted behavior, by managers of organizations.
It also raised a question mark on the role of Boards and their oversight responsibility. It is necessary as we climb our career ladder to show keen interest in the characteristics of corporate governance structure from the highest policy-making levels which is the Board to the investor interests in your organization.
That way, you will prepare yourselves when you ultimately find yourself in the role of Board membership. As can be seen in the ENRON case there is a catastrophic failure on the part of the Board of the company to ensure good conduct by Management. As representatives of the shareholder, the Board failed to protect the overriding interest of the owners of the company and that of other stakeholders who look up to them for protection of their investing interest.
The ENRON study also confirms that Executive compensations which still bedevil organizations worldwide is a major reason for poor governance practices. It is so because such compensation models are hinged upon human nature of self-preservation and greed. The need for compensation that would encourage creativity and higher productivity while controlling the inherent greed in managers of corporate entities in acquiring renewed urgency. I personally believe that over-reliance on short term view of corporate management must give way to a long term and sustainable growth models.
As Professionals, it is important you consider sustainability over short term views. If you do, I believe your world view will be positively influenced, thereby enhancing your ability to make a positive difference to the profession of providing Insurance services.
4. TECHNOLOGY: A TOOL FOR ENHANCING PRODUCTIVITY AND FINANCIAL CONTROL
What I find intriguing and even disturbing from a recent observation of activities of most Insurance managers in the Nigerian insurance industry is the almost total apathy shown towards automation and deployment of technology tools in our companies. It is a regrettable action in this ever-evolving digital age in which we find ourselves today.
Let me once again, draw from an outside resource to help us focus more appropriately on this vital subject.
BCG perspective is a think-tank of the Boston Consulting Group.
BCG is a world-renowned consulting organization for business organizations. In a study on Information Technology in the Insurance industry, they came up with what I find very conclusively interesting and I share with you below the executive summary of the study, titled CREATING I.T ADVANTAGE IN THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY. The principal resource persons behind the study are REINER MINZ and THOMAS ACHORMER; they wrote:
Information Technology is a major driver of cost and value, and therefore a critical strategic issue for insurance companies.
- I.T costs continue to rise for insurers, although the rate of increase has slowed since the late 1990s.
- I.T cost can be separated into two general types: those for supporting on-going I.T operations and maintenance (run – the - company costs) and those for innovating and developing new functionalities (change – company – costs).
- Relatively high I.T innovation budgets do not automatically bring added value to the insurer, since new functionalities must be aligned with strategic objectives.
In order to accurately measure and reduce I.T cost on an on-going basis, insurers must take steps to make I.T costs more transparent.
- A majority of insurers find it difficult to determine their total I.T costs and even more challenging to assess those of separate business lines. This condition reflects a general lack of rigor in both identifying different types of I.T costs and tracking how I.T costs are allocated.
- To accurately gauge the competitive I.T position of an individual insurance company, a benchmarking comparison with local competitors is necessary.
- The two most important performance indicators for insurers are I.T cost ratio (total I.T costs as a percentage of gross premium) and I.T unit cost (the I.T cost per policy or per insured risk in the portfolio). Both figures should be carefully monitored for each business line in order to improve cost and performance transparency.
I.T costs can be effectively and strategically managed if insurers give I.T issues the high priority they deserve.
- Business characteristics – such as the company’s size, the depth and complexity of the product portfolio, and the number and nature of sales channels – are principal drivers of I.T costs.
Consequently, CIOs should identify these cost drivers and clearly track the ways in which they affect I.T budgets.
- CIOs can directly manage key I.T cost drivers, such as the I.T project portfolio, the nature and complexity of I.T architecture, the efficiency of I.T processes, and approach to I.T sourcing.
- Insurers should aim to increase the change-the-company share of the I.T budget and commit to managing new I.T investments rigorously. This includes gauging the optimal moment to introduce new technologies.
I.T can become a true source of competitive advantage only if an insurer’s I.T strategy is well aligned with its overall business strategy.
- If I.T and business strategies diverge, I.T investments cannot possibly achieve maximum value.
- Proper alignment can be brought about only through integrated planning, supported by organizational and governance structures aimed at maximizing the business value of I.T investments and reducing total I.T costs. Part of this process involves forming a clear understanding of the I.T implication of specific business decisions – such as merger activities, the extension of sales channels, and redesign of business models or processes.
- I.T project portfolios should be managed centrally and vigilantly, including regularly reviewing each project’s progress, budget status and realized benefits. In parallel, insurers should aim to trim their run-the-company I.T cost by reducing I.T complexity, consolidating data centers, and leveraging outsourcing options.
Even though the findings were for the benefits of the insurance industry in the US, you will agree with me that the benchmark study is as relevant to the US insurance companies as it is for companies in Nigeria. It goes to reinforce the fact that digital age practices have a common denominator and technology is handing down competitive advantage to all companies no matter where they are located. The challenges and opportunities are made the same. If you observe the Nigerian technology environment, you will see that companies who have aligned their corporate strategy with that of their I.T, have better prospects of succeeding and in fact are doing much better in customer service, internal control, etc.
As insurance service professionals you also therefore need to develop a personal talent or skill of utilizing technology tools to enhance your professional competence. Do not think that, you will ever be able to run a modern insurance company without an integrated information and communication technology ICT strategy. If that is the case, then you must be ICT literate as a matter of necessity. In fact, computer literacy or indeed competency must compliment your insurance knowledge if you are going to make the positive difference we are all aspiring to.
5. LEADERSHIP: THE GOAL IS TO MAKE A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE
As professional insurance service providers, you have acquired for yourselves a high prospect of occupying leadership positions in the industry. It’s important to still reflect on the why, which we talked about under Governance.
For this intervention, we shall view leadership as an ability of an individual to inspire great performance from a given group or team. The key word here is to inspire because many a leader achieve same result by manipulation. The ultimate difference between the two leadership traits is that inspirational leadership usually guarantees sustainable performance whilst manipulative methods lead to the achievement of only a short term and dubious results. It is said that manipulation brings transaction, but not loyalty.
There are many literary works on leadership and I recommend that you read them to avail yourselves with the various roles of leading, in all given circumstances. I will advise you to also take great interest in leadership development programmes of this Institute and others.
The main issue at the end of the day however, is your personal attributes, values and beliefs. I am assuming once again that we all have the aim of making our industry a better one. To that extent, I am also to believe that from now on you will conduct yourselves as inspirational leaders in such a way that you act with fairness, firmness and transparency. Needless for me to say, you will behave with integrity, at all times.
6. DISCIPLINE: BEHAVIOR IN ACCORDANCE WITH RULES OF CONDUCT
Discipline on account of professionals means complying with the predefined rules and regulations of your profession and the industry at large. In every profession there are set rules which are meant to be obeyed, likewise in the industry.
In the industry, there are some of the prevailing laws guiding the practice of Insurance in Nigeria, they are:
· The Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria Act, 1993
· The National Insurance Commission Act, 1997
· Insurance Act, 2003
· Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers Act, 2003
All these laws have provisions on what Professionals are expected or required to do. We will not review all these laws but however, we will concentrate on the provisions of the Enabling Law of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria.
Sections 14 and 15 of the CIIN Enabling Act, no 22 of 1993 stipulate that there shall be established;
(a) Disciplinary Committee to consider and determine cases of misconduct by members.
(b) Investigating Panel – that will investigate any act of misconduct on the part of any member.
(c) The Council may make rules not inconsistent with the Act as to Acts which constitute Professional misconduct.
Section 15 of the Law also prescribes penalties for unprofessional conduct.
The punishment for anyone guilty of INFAMOUS CONDUCT – is to have his name struck off the register of members of the Institute.
Infamous conduct covers all aspects of our Professional life and if found guilty, the guilty member’s name will be struck off from the membership register thereby putting a halt to the career of such a guilty member and such member cannot make a difference. And do not forget that for you to be able to continue your practice as an Insurance professional in Nigeria, you must have your name in the Register of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria.
7. THE STATE OF THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY AND THE FUTURE PROSPECT
When we discussed my invitation to do this paper, the Director-General of the Institute suggested I make and include a prediction of where the industry will be in the next five years. I found that suggestion puzzling since there was never a time I told the Director-General, that I have a crystal ball hiding anywhere in my house, with which to see the future. Nevertheless, I got the hint that what the Director-General wanted me to do was to look at where we are today as a profession and industry and based on my findings draw some assumptions, which will lead me to guess the future. I assure you the second option is scientific and very easy to do, at least much easier than the crystal ball wonder.
Nigeria is ranked the 5th insurance market on the African continent and 66 in the world (Sigma Report 2010) with gross premium written of 2Billion USD or 300 billion naira, but insurance penetration per capita is lower in Nigeria even by African levels.
The official data available indicates in the last five years Nigeria GDP growth has been at a rate of 5-7% per annum. Even after adjusting for inflation rate fluctuating between 10-15% this is still a remarkable growth in comparative terms to other economies of the world, most of which are in recession.
So putting the Nigerian insurance industry in the context of the national economy, the prognosis for the future looks very good for growth. This is assuming however that we as an industry and as professionals improve our market facing attributes that reduce the penetration gap. We can improve the future of the industry if we offer products that would be acceptable and to have the capacity to give excellent after sales services.
With a large young urban based population, mass appeal products or the retail market type products would do well.
It is important to also recognize the tremendous efforts of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) over the last five years through the implementation of pragmatic supervision and the introduction of key initiatives with the sole aim of expanding the penetration of Insurance services.
NAICOM also during the same period improved the effective implementation of existing laws on compulsory Insurance thereby increased written premium.
More importantly than all these, NAICOM had done a good job of sanitizing the Industry and compelled companies to imbibe the culture of Best Practices in Corporate Governance.
It appears that NAICOM’s aim was and still is to make companies operate with integrity.
By all these efforts, it is envisaged that by 2020 written premium income of the industry will pass the trillion Naira mark.
By and large, it is safe to predict that the Insurance Industry in Nigeria is on the way to sustainable growth in the personal lines (retail), commercial lines and oil and gas insurance. We must however as an industry be more creative in product development and operate with integrity.
8. MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE INDUSTRY
I wish to share some of my personal experiences with you and perhaps you would draw some beneficial lessons from it. I started my Insurance career in 1972. As with most people of my time, I did not have the benefit of career guidance and counseling, therefore after school I really did not have a clear career path to follow which was based on any objective criteria. I knew that I had developed interest in Journalism having been a writer for the College magazine, so when I moved to Kaduna from the province, my first job was at the New Nigerian Newspapers.
As fate would have it, few months later I was attracted by the glamour of Television broadcasting and decided to move across to the Television house to become a newscaster, that was not to be however because I was told to wait for a vacancy in the newsroom but in the time I was deployed to assist in the Accounts Department. Amazingly, that was how I stumbled on Insurance as a Clerical Assistant filing claims documents of the company.
However, when it was time to further my education after privately studying for ‘A’ levels courses, I wanted to study Accounts and I was rejected and given the only available course which was Insurance. I am by all standards after seeing what happened to me in the last forty years of insurance career, a very lucky man indeed, to be so rejected on two occasions and all to be led to a destiny with Insurance career.
After obtaining a Diploma in Insurance, Ahmadu Bello University retained me to work in the Bursary department which is essentially the Finance and Accounts department and my role was the placement of the university’s insurances and claims management.
Not too long after, I went to work with Nigeria Airways doing the same things but this time a more demanding Aviation Insurance practice which is more complex and of course more interesting. The company sent me to Glasgow to study for the UK ASSOCIATESHIP.
Shortly after I returned, I went into the mainstream Insurance practice as a Branch Manager for American International Insurance Company (AIICO) that was 30 years ago in 1982. From there, I went to Kapital Insurance company as a Claims Manager.
From there I set up a Broking firm and from there I joined NICON to coordinate the Kano Regional office. It was from there that I moved to NIGER Insurance in 1993 at the time I already had my ACII and an MBA. I was made General Manager then Executive Director and later MD/CEO and now Chairman.
From the entire roller coaster story, I just want you to note two salient points. When I was Managing Director and to some limited extent even now when a clerk has any issue and came to me I related with him very well because I was once like him and where it was the turn of a General Manager or an Executive Director, I know the matter he would like resolved because I was once like him. Now as Chairman I relate very well with the MD because I was once like him so whatever position you find yourself, take it as a training opportunity, because as you move up, you will need the experience to be effective in the job you are doing at the given time. I cannot make a good Chairman if I do not relate well with the MD and so it will go down the ladder.
The second point is that the last time I checked the balance sheet size of Niger Insurance Plc today is over 20 billion Naira much bigger figure than it was when I joined. My promise made then, to leave the company a better place than I met it, was being made possible by my token effort and those big contributions of those I inspired to work with me. As to whether I acted with integrity I cannot pass that judgment, history will do that at its own time.
9. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
In this presentation so far what I have attempted to achieve is to raise your consciousness to the fact that the future of the Insurance Industry for the good and for the bad is for you to decide because you play critical roles in the affairs of the industry.
I also told you that the best choice for you is to make the industry a better one and you must strive to bequeath a worthy legacy to the next generation of Insurance Professionals.
To do that, I emphasized that you must have INTEGRITY. I also drew your attention to the need for GOOD CORPORATE GOVERNANCE as a solution to the many ills we see today in the industry. I deliberately refrained from the usual critic of the industry which we do always without looking at the possibilities for a better future.
I believe we will have a better future in spite of all the challenges the industry now faces. I am sure we will all avoid all actions that will perpetuate these ills. Indeed, if we act with integrity and operate structures that are well managed, we shall be making a positive difference.
I drew your attention to the need to key into the EVOLVING DIGITAL AGE and here I admonish that you must upgrade your ICT knowledge to the level that will make you utilize Technology tools for the running of your personal affairs and that of your organizations.
You should have the carriage of a professional. In your looks, the way you dress, talk and present yourself. You should be confident and courageous as these would stand you out as Insurance Professionals that want to make a difference.
As I said earlier, LOYALTY is key to a successful career and to that Professional that wants to make a difference. If your company pays you, then you must work and earn the pay. You must be loyal to that company that pays you; you must take it as yours.
I also have a word for Employers and Management as I close. We must create an enabling environment for our employees to excel, to blossom, to experiment if need be, to make mistakes and correct these mistakes, to learn, to advance, and be adequately remunerated.
Distinguished Professional colleagues, I recommend that you act with integrity and I pray you become inspirational leaders of our industry thereby make a positive difference to its future.
Thank you for listening.
BALA ZAKARIYA’U, FIIN.
Past President, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria
Chairman, Niger Insurance Plc
REFERENCES
National Insurance Commission's Industry Publications
CIIN's Archives.
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