June 2022 | The ICISA INSIDER
| Column
Great to see you again! Column by Jan Mueller, Hannover Re
Being in Helsinki with ICISA, as well as a number of other conferences and in-person meetings with clients recently, one could sense that people in our industry are very happy to see each other again. As happy as we were to be able to transact business virtually over the last 2 years (a luxury compared to some other industries), we are excited now to be able to talk personally again.
things are among many other aspects necessary to constantly develop the culture in our companies. The famous slogan, “culture eats strategy for breakfast”, continues to be true. It remains important that culture reflects the needs & desires of the time we are living in and is instrumental to economic success. Without such economic success, no culture would be perceived as something positive, per se.
No doubt we discovered significant advantages/efficiency gains in working virtually. We saved on travel and commuting time certainly and were able to spending much more time at home than ever before. On the other side, we recognised that the density of meetings went sharply up and the days hardly showed any rhythm change, which relativised the appeal of pure virtual exchanges to some extent. Overall, I think we learned to deal with the situation and to know when a virtual meeting is suitable and when it is maybe not the best option.
Going forward, I am very optimistic that we will find the right answers in our industry to the opportunities and challenges ahead and that a good mix of virtual and in-person communication among market participants and within our teams will contribute to this.
When we came back to meetings in person, we realised that sitting next to colleagues or clients in an office, airport, train, plane etc. comes with great advantages and its own efficiencies. Spending time with each other and not following a fixed agenda gives opportunities to cover many topics at the same time and possibilities to listen to and learn from each other. At the end of the day, this is one of the main preconditions to finding good solutions with your clients and within your teams, to develop good relationships, and probably most important, to create mutual trust. In addition, spending time together in person clearly helps to form teams, integrate new staff members and challenge leadership (or as Mads Logstrup called it in the last ICISA Insider: “the old hands”) in their established views. These
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One thing I already know, I am looking forward to seeing you all again on the next occasion…in person and virtually!
Don’t miss the Autumn edition of the Insider Magazine! Charles Nortje from Credit Guarantee Insurance Corporation (CGIC) will be the next columnist!
