This is the fourth in a series of brief interviews with speakers, presenters, moderators or panelists at the Society of Insurance Research Annual Conference and Exhibits, which is being held October 20-22 in Charlotte, NC. You can register for the event here: https://www.sirnet.org/SIRMember/Events/2019_Annual_Conference/Event_Collector.aspx
What is your name and what do you do?
- My name is Nanette Bulger and I am an independent consultant on the international stage. Prior to this, I was CEO of the Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) organization and a strategist for a number of different industries.
What is your role at the 2019 SIR Annual Conference? If you’re presenting, what can attendees expect to learn from your presentation?
- My role at the conference will be to present on the topic of changes in the competitive intelligence discipline and Industry. With the onset of big data, artificial intelligence, and easy access to information, it is changing the profession on a profound basis. Most people worry that their jobs are going away if they are involved in competitive intelligence which is not the case. We will discuss the changes that are happening and how you as a professional should prepare your skill-set to sustain relevancy.
How did you get involved with the SIR?
- I was asked to speak given that a number of members of this organization also came from the competitive intelligence organization programming as well.
What do you see as the biggest challenges/opportunities for the Insurance Ecosystem in the next 5 years?
- While I am not an expert in the insurance industry, I can tell you that anyone performing decision support and decision-making for an organization will experience the same thing. That is this. The way that information is collected, the way it is analyzed, and the way decisions are made is changing. Additionally, in a global world one needs to have skills that not only expand the number of skillsets including expert analysis skills and a working knowledge of data science, but they will have to perform on a global basis. In addition, new frameworks are arising which are focused more on building proper assumptions than just gathering data to support a hypothesis that has been set forth whether it has been proven or not. We will talk about these things.
What is the best piece of advice you have for someone building an insurance career?
- Again my focus is on building a good decision support and decision-making skills that regardless of Industry. As a result, my best piece of advice is to advance your strategic skills. In addition, you need to advance your leadership skills because your job will morph from being the data-gather and the analyzer to the advisor. We will talk about what that means.
Besides your own session, what are you most excited about at SIR 2019?
- I am of course very interested in the networking aspect of the conference. I think this conference is really advancing not only the insurance profession but also the skills needed to provide your organization with a competitive advantage.
About Carly Burnham
Carly Burnham began her insurance career in 2004 as an office assistant at an agency in her hometown of Duluth, MN. She got licensed as a producer while working at that agency and progressed to serve as an office manager. Working in the agency is how she fell in love with the industry. She saw firsthand the good that insurance consumers experienced by having the proper protection. When Carly moved to Des Moines in 2010, she decided to commit to the industry, and she completed her CPCU in one year finishing it in 2012 and attending commencement in New Orleans. She completed her MBA at Iowa State University in 2014. During this time, she and Tony founded a Gen Y Associate Resource Group at Nationwide in Des Moines. After they had both left Nationwide, Tony recruited Carly to co-author and manage InsNerds.com. She has the difficult task of keeping his constant flow of crazy ideas focused and helping to flesh them out into useful articles. Carly enjoys sharing knowledge and ideas about the future of the industry and finds the website a good outlet for this passion. Carly is involved in the the CPCU Society Underwriting Interest Group. She also writes "Next Wave" a monthly column in the "Perspectives" section of Best's Review.
Carly Burnham began her insurance career in 2004 as an office assistant at an agency in her hometown of Duluth, MN. She got licensed as a producer while working at that agency and progressed to serve as an office manager. Working in the agency is how she fell in love with the industry. She saw firsthand the good that insurance consumers experienced by having the proper protection.
When Carly moved to Des Moines in 2010, she decided to commit to the industry, and she completed her CPCU in one year finishing it in 2012 and attending commencement in New Orleans. She completed her MBA at Iowa State University in 2014. During this time, she and Tony founded a Gen Y Associate Resource Group at Nationwide in Des Moines.
After they had both left Nationwide, Tony recruited Carly to co-author and manage InsNerds.com. She has the difficult task of keeping his constant flow of crazy ideas focused and helping to flesh them out into useful articles. Carly enjoys sharing knowledge and ideas about the future of the industry and finds the website a good outlet for this passion.
Carly is involved in the the CPCU Society Underwriting Interest Group. She also writes "Next Wave" a monthly column in the "Perspectives" section of Best's Review.
