Skip to main content
The Actuary: The magazine of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries - return to the homepage Logo of The Actuary website
  • Search
  • Visit The Actuary Magazine on Facebook
  • Visit The Actuary Magazine on LinkedIn
  • Visit @TheActuaryMag on Twitter
Visit the website of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries Logo of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries

Main navigation

  • News
  • Features
    • General Features
    • Interviews
    • Students
    • Opinion
  • Topics
  • Knowledge
    • Business Skills
    • Careers
    • Events
    • Predictions by The Actuary
    • Whitepapers
    • Moody's - Climate Risk Insurers series
    • Webinars
    • Podcasts
  • Jobs
  • IFoA
    • CEO Comment
    • IFoA News
    • People & Social News
    • President Comment
  • Archive
Quick links:
  • Home
  • The Actuary Issues
  • December 2013
12

President's comment: Reflections on making a difference

Open-access content Friday 29th November 2013

David Hare underlines that to succeed at a higher level actuaries will need broader skill sets than their forebears

2

The end of 2013 beckons and I've nearly reached the half-way point of my presidency. It feels like a good time to reflect on how things are going.

As I said in my opening address in June, the role of president is no longer to develop strategy - this rests with your elected representatives, the Council. As president I am an agent for the Council, which makes me your agent. My role as president is to be a representative voice and to use my particular skills and experience to help guide the implementation of the strategy and visibly champion the achieving of our mission and vision.

As you know, I chose 'ramping up our relevance' as the theme for my presidency. As these columns will, I hope, have made clear in the past few months, I am keen to promote member engagement both for our own sake as a profession and to make a difference to society, whether that be through the work that each of us undertakes daily or through the wider public affairs work of the IFoA.

I am, as I am sure you are now aware, keen to encourage us all to broaden our skill sets. Businesses and government policy makers are looking for non-technical skills like influencing, communication and commercial awareness as well as technical skills. 

When I speak to new qualifiers on how they can "be relevant and keep relevant," I suggest that, in addition to keeping their technical and professional skills up to date, they also look to trends in corporate and public strategies and the consequential resource requirements. 

To be relevant as individuals and as a profession we must consider what the market and employers need and how our skill sets fit with this - including how we can utilise the technology that is now available to us. To succeed at the highest levels the modern actuary will need a broader skill set than their forbears.

I recently had a conversation with a senior manager at a FTSE 100 company about the career prospects for actuaries at middle and senior management levels. Rather than talking about this in terms of future direction, he was thinking about the "here and now", and was considering the extent to which the current generation of actuarial professionals in his firm needed to develop their skills to ensure they kept relevant to their firm's business model. He was asking questions like: What can they do to help themselves? How much hand holding do they need? The need to be relevant and move with the times is incumbent on us all, not just those starting out.

When I discuss relevance I'm not only referring to actuaries in the outside world. I'm also conscious of the need for the IFoA to be relevant to its membership. The IFoA is working hard to answer your calls for change. However, I recognise that more is needed and that this will take time. 

The new-look www.actuaries.org.uk, which goes live next year, will help I'm sure, but what else can be done? 

I wonder if we are missing a trick by emphasising the need to volunteer? One of the actuarial function-holders I was speaking to recently felt that this was the wrong emphasis. His view was that if we were to refer to "development opportunities", members would be more likely to engage. It seems to me that as this is what the roles we offer actually are, after all, he may well have a point. I know that many of our members (and there are now more than 25,000 of us) are keen to give something back, and nearly 2,700 of us are clearly happy to volunteer. But, to tap into the other nearly 90%, would a change in positioning help? Something to ponder - and I would be interested in hearing your thoughts.

At the strategy session we held at last month's Council meeting, the question was raised about whether our qualification takes too long to achieve and if the training approach we use is flexible enough for today's world. These are not new questions, but I sense answering them is becoming more urgent.

These are the sorts of issues I am grappling with as I seek to lead the IFoA Council and work in partnership with Derek Cribb, the IFoA chief executive. Are we headed in the right direction and are we moving quickly enough?

I think we need 

to do more, and I think more of the membership should be active in demanding more. There is an opportunity for you to do so this month, as the practice board surveys arrive in your in-boxes. Please do take the time to respond. 

These are exciting times. I look forward to the New Year and to tackling the many challenges and opportunities that will come with it.

This article appeared in our December 2013 issue of The Actuary .
Click here to view this issue

You may also be interested in...

2

Soapbox: Mandatory security is not good security

Carl Leeman argues that EU mandatory financial security proposals are not taking into account the market capacity already available
Friday 29th November 2013
Open-access content
2

Derek Cribb: The year in review

Derek Cribb takes a look at what the IFoA has achieved in 2013 and what the future holds
Thursday 28th November 2013
Open-access content
2

12 in 12 marathon feat continues

Wednesday 27th November 2013
Open-access content
2

A banquet fit for actuaries

Wednesday 27th November 2013
Open-access content
Deepak Jobanputra Pru Protect editor The Actuary

Ring in the new

Actuaries should develop a balanced approach to create a good legacy, says Deepak Jobanputra
Tuesday 26th November 2013
Open-access content
2

Burgeoning Burundi

Kieran Holmes and Laura Llewellyn-Jones offer an insight into a growing financial landscape
Tuesday 26th November 2013
Open-access content

Latest from Modelling/software

EG\

Uneven outcomes: findings on cancer mortality

Ayşe Arık, Andrew Cairns, Erengul Dodd, Adam Shao and George Streftaris share their findings on the impact of socio-economic differences and diagnostic delays on cancer mortality
Wednesday 1st June 2022
Open-access content
dtj

Talking census: making use of data

With the ONS starting to release the data from the 2021 census, Jeremy Keating considers how those working in insurance can make use of it
Wednesday 1st June 2022
Open-access content
hrts

Storm watch: Can IPCC models be used in cat modelling?

Can IPCC projections be used to adjust catastrophe models for climate change? Nigel Winspear and David Maneval investigate, using US hurricanes as an example
Wednesday 1st June 2022
Open-access content

Latest from December 2013

ta

Trustees urged to complete TPR toolkit

Pension scheme trustees have been urged to bring themselves up to speed with key retirement policies and legal developments by completing new modules in The Pension Regulator's trustee toolkit.
Thursday 31st July 2014
Open-access content

Driverless cars 'require new insurance approach'

There needs to be a fresh approach to motor insurance if driverless cars are to become a feature of the UK road landscape, a senior industry leader has claimed.
Wednesday 30th July 2014
Open-access content

Annuity sales 'down 44% over the year'

There was a 44% drop in annuity sales in June when compared to the same month last year, according to research by financial systems provider IRESS.
Wednesday 30th July 2014
Open-access content

Latest from small_opening_image

2

COVID-19 forum for actuaries launched

A forum for actuaries has been launched to help the profession come together and learn how best to respond to the deadly coronavirus sweeping the world.
Wednesday 25th March 2020
Open-access content
2

Travel insurers expect record payouts this year

UK travel insurers expect to pay a record £275m to customers this year as coronavirus grounds flights across the world, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has revealed.
Wednesday 25th March 2020
Open-access content
2

Grim economic forecasts made as countries lockdown

A sharp recession is imminent in the vast majority of developed and emerging economies as the deadly coronavirus forces businesses to shut down across the world.
Tuesday 24th March 2020
Open-access content
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linked in
  • Mail
  • Print

Latest Jobs

BPA Transition Manager

London, England / Edinburgh, Scotland
£45000 - £65000 per annum + market leading bonus and benefits
Reference
148878

London Market Pricing Contracts - Inside & Outside IR35

London (Central)
£1000 - £1300 per day
Reference
148877

SME Pricing Director

London (Central), London (Greater)
£225K + bonus + benefits
Reference
148872
See all jobs »
 
 
 
 

Sign up to our newsletter

News, jobs and updates

Sign up

Subscribe to The Actuary

Receive the print edition straight to your door

Subscribe
Spread-iPad-slantB-june.png

Topics

  • Data Science
  • Investment
  • Risk & ERM
  • Pensions
  • Environment
  • Soft skills
  • General Insurance
  • Regulation Standards
  • Health care
  • Technology
  • Reinsurance
  • Global
  • Life insurance
​
FOLLOW US
The Actuary on LinkedIn
@TheActuaryMag on Twitter
Facebook: The Actuary Magazine
CONTACT US
The Actuary
Tel: (+44) 020 7880 6200
​

IFoA

About IFoA
Become an actuary
IFoA Events
About membership

Information

Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Cookie Policy
Think Green

Get in touch

Contact us
Advertise with us
Subscribe to The Actuary Magazine
Contribute

The Actuary Jobs

Actuarial job search
Pensions jobs
General insurance jobs
Solvency II jobs

© 2023 The Actuary. The Actuary is published on behalf of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries by Redactive Publishing Limited. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part is not allowed without written permission.

Redactive Media Group Ltd, 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ