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Article
STRATEGIC PRIORITIES TRANSITIONING TO GREATER EXTERNAL FOCUS
By
Steve Callahan
Practice Development Director
Findings from the Robert E. Nolan Company’s recent Life and Annuity Industry Survey indicate that increasingly, priorities among senior executives are being set by external market factors rather than internal drivers. Demands for returns and profitability are magnifying the pressure on growth, with increasingly complex industry conditions creating many conflicting choices for executives to sift through. Allocating the limited resources of time, money, and people to the tradeoffs between service, support, product features, and returns has become the decision process requiring the greatest care and focus.
With more than 51% of the survey respondents at an EVP level or higher and almost 80% officers in their companies, finding the balance across this diversity of strategic considerations is at the forefront of the responses. Valuable insights from active industry leaders address timely issues, including:
 | Company self-assessments regarding goals, strategies, expense management, process improvement, and technology
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| Important management issues such as outsourcing, technology management, and product strategies that warrant priority and resources from company leaders
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| Changes foreseen in the competitive landscape in the coming few years
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Within this context, five strategically significant trends stand out as key differentiators for prioritizing and allocating limited resources:
| Clearly defined shifts in demographics paired with changing customer expectations
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| Implementation challenges with expense management and the effective use of technology
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| Leveraging sales and marketing investments for optimal returns in three key areas
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| Using service as a competitive advantage to offset converging products
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| Intense focusing of technology efforts across the four key service platforms
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The detailed findings report elaborates on each trend and suggests next steps for consideration in each of the five major survey categories reviewed: Industry Trends, Sales and Marketing, Operations, Technology, and Outsourcing.
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