Red Sox Contingency Plan for the Manny Exodus.

This is the 3rd or fourth go around I’ve had with “I’m sick of Manny Ramirez…  they should get rid of him and bring in some fresh talent”.  Of course, that’s not so easy, considering that Manny has to approve any trade deal. And you’ve got to think that if the trade doesn’t provide for a new multi-year contract, that he won’t approve it.  This scenario is so familiar, even in the business world.  Think of the super salesperson, the coding whiz, or any other person that provides almost unreplaceable talent and resources.  Many times, these individuals are incredibly difficult to manage, and quite possibly are downright disruptive to an organization.  Sound familiar?  The Manny discussion could go on forever between the Red Sox Management point of view and Manny’s view from high atop the jungle gym.

So now the contingency plan; what do they do?  Did they know this might be coming and plan out some strategy to mitigate it?  It might be possible, but MLB is a moving target and what might seem possible today is completely remote tomorrow.  Does corporate America determine what their risks are and plan out what they would do in the event of an adversely impacting occurence? (And you though that I wouldn’t talk about insurance!)  The answer is that most large companies with risk managers and/or risk saavy financial executives do have some kind of contingency or disaster recovery plan in place.  Unfortunately, many small to midsize companies do not.  Taking a few minutes to explore the what-if’s and the what-would-we-do’s in the event of an adverse occurrence, many business executives would more than likely identify the pitfalls and the resulting revenue flow that would be gasping for air.  I think that the Red Sox will have a replacement left fielder quite a bit faster than a business that has to replace operations should neither have a contingency plan.  And don’t mind me, it’s just Andy being Andy.

New Developments Are Sounding Old.

I got in the office early today and perused through my usual news, RSS feeds, and blogs.  Among others, it seems that SAP and Oracle continue to battle it out; Oracle is alleging that SAP, through the acquisition of another company, gained copyrighted materials from Oracle’s website.  Is it just me, or is the corporate espionage game festering a little faster these days?  Naive my comment may be, but I’m getting to the point where nothing surprises me anymore.  It just seems like another day in Kansas when one company is acccused of stealing some kind of IP from a competitor.  I should have been an IP attorney.

So, the lay of the land in insurance these days is laden with quicksand and you never really know where the bottom is until you hear the singing and the clean up crews are sweeping up the mess.  Premiums are down, terms and conditions are loose and comfy, and insurance companies are looking to try anything to retain their existing business and write new business.  Overall, it appears that many insurers are dealing with shrinking profits due to losses and premiums that are on diets.  Add to this the current “slowdown” in the economy (I call it that because it makes me feel better) and the volatile stock market, and it doesn’t make for a pretty picture.  So what will happen now?  If I knew I’d be an actuarial savant.  But it does appear that based on the natural disaster claims over the last couple of years, and the California fires, and if we have a bad hurricane season, and if the Siemens Director’s & Officer’s claim in Germany is as bad as the predict, and the mortgage crisis, (insert your own disaster here)…  I think that you get the picture.  I would have to guess that at the minimum, the bottom is either here or close, and the possibility of some hardening is not out of the question.  I really do love to speculate!

Now, we begin.

So here is the first post of my long anticipated insurance blog.  Of course I’m the only one who anticipated it, but you have to start somewhere.  I’m an insurance broker specializing in the technology and life sciences sectors, as well as any operation that has a professional liability exposure.  From the outside looking in, the insurance industry has somewhat of a dry look to it.  Stodgy, boring, and something that you don’t really want to talk about.  In the 80’s movie “Weird Science”,  Anthony Michael Hall talks about another character in the movie who is the life of the party, proclaiming that “she could have fun at an insurance seminar”.  I assume that’s a common viewpoint of the insurance business,  but it really is an exciting industry, considering the changing business world of technology, life sciences, and the overall revolution of how we conduct business.  This revolution presents challenges on how to appropriately design an insurance program for a business.  It’s kind of like a game of chess, but the rules keep changing and if you don’t keep up with the changes, it’s checkmate.  Yeah, I love it and I consider myself an enthusiastic student of the industry.  In my next post I will give you the current lay of the land in the insurance industry and spread some insurance enthusiasm…