You’re Fired!

When and how did the insurance industry get the brand image as boring? That image never fit. Certainly nobody in the industry today could think that this industry is boring. What other industry faces the diversity of challenges that this industry faces? The insurance industry is in the thick of discussions regarding terrorism, environmental warming, civil justice reform, not to mention corporate governance, compensation disclosure, consumer fraud, and even its own unique business cycles.

The dozens of far-reaching issues the insurance industry faces are in addition to the routine challenges of profits, people and pricing that every industry faces. Even its pricing is unmatched for innovation and intrigue–it’s not like pricing widgets.

At the retail level, insurance agents and customer service representatives deal with real people and solve real problems, the stuff which keeps families, businesses and entire communities intact and functioning.

What other industry can trump this excitement?

At the same time, what other industry has so few public figures who express the excitement it deals with every day?

Maybe the industry’s CEOs and leaders are so busy with important issues they don’t have time to develop their celebrity status the way various high-tech CEOs from Gates to Fiorina and even, for gosh sakes, a certain casino owner seem to do. Even that guy in charge of making razor blades gets treated like a rock star compared to most insurance CEOs.

AIG’s Hank Greenberg may be the closest the industry has to a celebrity leader and he does a fine job. But he can’t do it alone forever.

Industry star power is not an entirely frivolous issue. Industries with stars seem to have less trouble gaining public understanding, attracting the best apprentices and retaining employees.

It also doesn’t help public confidence in insurance when industry leaders attain their highest profile only when their companies are charged with illegal or unethical activities. Where are the positive public faces to counter the negative?

All of this makes one wonder who’s in charge of the industry’s branding effort. Who says that insurance CEOs must be colorless? Who decides they shouldn’t talk with the media? Who advises them not to run for office? Who says they shouldn’t have fun? Whoever is in charge of this effort should be brought into the boardroom and fired.

OK, back to work now before someone suggests that smarty-pants insurance editors should also be shown the door.