Over the past year as CAS president-elect, my agenda has been focused on the future of the CAS. I want our organization to live up to the aspirations of our members as well as our various supporters and constituents. We definitely have the momentum to launch into our next century.
Every year thousands of college and university students focus their career searches on the Jobs Rated Almanac, where actuary is rated the top job (or very nearly) year after year. Those looking for internship and entry-level actuarial positions can find themselves competing with 50 to 100 other qualified candidates. Competition like that should be great for the profession, but is it really? How are we expanding the job opportunities for those large numbers of young people whose career interests align with the CAS? And is it not in our best interests to meet the needs of this constituency?
As an actuarial organization in a dynamic world, competition and other challenges are all around us. “Meeting the needs” only opens the door and maybe not for that long. As a profession and a professional society, we are faced with table stakes that reflect the race for relevance. How can CAS members adapt their skills to the changing business models, spurred by changes driven by tech companies like Google, Amazon, Apple, Uber and Tesla Motors? Are we up to the challenges from disruptive technology innovations? I say we are, evidenced by actuarial pioneers like Dr. Frank Chang, FCAS, who is chief actuary at Uber and was formerly at Google. However, should we be educating actuaries for jobs beyond traditional actuarial roles? If not, will we be foregoing opportunities to expand the applications of our actuarial skills into the new business models, even in the traditional industries we serve?
Our CAS Board and leadership strongly support looking ahead in several areas. We are improving the relevance of our exams by increasing the emphasis on the statistics underlying predictive modeling and advanced analytics. We are updating our strategies — particularly those that address our opportunities to merge actuarial skills within multidisciplinary teams. We are revising our Statements of Principles. We are also promoting the CAS brand in new ways. For example, you can now show your pride in the CAS by getting a professional dress shirt you can now order through the CAS website. We are increasing the external focus on the CAS via a public relations initiative. Our goals are aimed at growing our community to be known as innovative, insightful, progressive, confident, professional and highly valued.
As an actuarial organization in a dynamic world, competition and other challenges are all around us. “Meeting the needs” only opens the door and maybe not for that long.
Despite economic recessions and serious conflicts around the globe, rapid changes in technology have fueled many transformations in business and society. We have launched several programs to give the CAS more focus on our ingenuity, creativity and inventiveness as leaders in applying our skill sets to these innovations, such as vehicle accident avoidance technology, self-driving vehicles, prescriptive analytics, embedded and wearable technology, to name a few.
A few months ago, we kicked off the CAS Innovation Council, a group with a definite focus on our future that includes two non-actuary members with innovation backgrounds. Innovation was the theme of the 2014 CAS Leadership Summit, a meeting of the volunteer leaders of CAS committees, and the work of the Innovation Council was a featured presentation. Council members and an outside expert from Doblin helped lead the summit attendees to explore our CAS orthodoxies — the protocols and entrenched practices that foster resistance to change and can cause blind spots in decision-making. In breakout sessions, attendees worked on how to “flip” those orthodoxies to reveal our capabilities to innovate.
Since last spring, the CAS has reached out to chief actuaries individually and through a new CAS Employers Advisory Council (EAC). The goal of the EAC is to connect better with chief actuaries (and the CAS members who work for them) and explore where they see the necessary skills sets for actuaries of the future working for large and diverse employers. While there was clearly a focus on making sure the CAS education stays relevant to future actuaries, the EAC also recognized in their discussion with chief actuaries that other disciplines, particularly predictive modeling, data science and analytics, are changing the environment in which actuaries operate. The main question is how does the actuarial profession adapt to these developments? Do actuaries need to become data scientists and business intelligence experts? If not, will casualty actuarial skills rapidly become obsolete?
If we cannot adapt to the changing environment, others may accelerate past us. Could something like a new Casualty Risk Analytics and Statistical Society (CRASS) emerge? Is that really such a farfetched idea? Let’s make sure the actuarial profession stays relevant and avoids a CRASS-like competitor that can challenge our relevance. Let’s stay focused on the future, for the profession, for the CAS and for ourselves. I ask you to help make it happen by submitting ideas and supporting suggestions that can help the CAS to remain relevant to you and your career.
In closing, the 2014 CAS Centennial Celebration and Annual Meeting was truly a fantastic event — and a big part of its theme will be mine: focused on the future.
CAS President Bob Miccolis is a director for Deloitte Consulting, LLP in Philadelphia.
