Speech for Crown Life 1998 annual meeting

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

It is my pleasure to report to you on the progress we made at Crown Life in 1997.

Before I do that, though, I want to talk about James Burke. He's a British scientist who has made something of a career out of connecting the dots when it comes to innovations.

Burke likes to show how one innovation can accidentally set off a chain of several more: how the need for better underwear in the twelfth century led to the printing press, or how calculating cannon ball trajectories led us to the movies.

I'd like to draw a connection of my own. I'd like to connect the Crown Life AGM in 1998 to a British basement in the 1940s.

So I'd like you to imagine that bombs are dropping all around you, and that before your eyes you are seeing a miracle: a machine that actually thinks.

It's a computer called Robinson, and it's breaking Germany's secret war codes. Thanks to Robinson, the Allies will have inside information on German plans and troop movements. If you think about it, Robinson won the war.

Why is that important to us? For two reasons. First of all, after the war, scientists started building electronic computers, and as the years went by, computers delivered more power in less space. We all know where this story goes: the Internet, corporate restructuring, globalization and much more. Crown Life employees are more productive every day because of computers.

But Robinson had another effect, too. When it ended the war, it allowed servicemen to come home to their wives and girlfriends, and they began having the families that had been delayed by the war.

In fact, they had them in such a burst that they created a massive new generation. This generation has been dislocating society and economics ever since.

How does that connect to us here?

First of all, that huge chunk of the population is getting older, which means that its needs are changing.

That generation was not only huge, but unusually capable of reshaping institutions to its own needs. Some blame it on Dr. Seuss, some blame it on the Beatles, but today's baby boomers are used to shaking their fists and getting their way.

In a way, Robinson allowed a massive, politically aware generation to be born. And Robinson was the grand-daddy of computers that could not only do more work, but that could fit on your lap. When these two elements came together, the results were explosive.

In a lot of ways, we've yet to see how this mixture will work out. It could well be the children of the baby boomers who will learn to make the most of the computer revolution. But we are already seeing some of the consequences.

Why should I believe what my insurance agent tells me when I can go online and find hundreds of pages of information on my own? I want advice and information, but I want to make my own decisions, based on my own needs.

Soon, I'll be able to buy what I want online, too, and that puts me in charge of everything, from marketing to price and payment. As the Internet shatters boundaries, I might someday make my insurance company compete against electronic entities in Malta or Tonga or the Cayman Islands.

In other words, I'll have the power to get the insurance products I want, at a price I can afford.

It's consumer democracy in action, and Crown Life is aggressively adapting itself to these new customer demands.

We're rapidly learning to take advantage of automation, technology and electronic means of transferring data. We're using technology to allow faster processing of applications and policy changes. We're using it to process claims more quickly, provide information more effectively and answer customer inquiries more efficiently.

And we've understood that the new technology doesn't just change the way you do things, it can also change what you do. For us, that means listening to our customers and changing right along with them.

It's ironic because, in a way, we are in the business of protecting people against change. We protect them against unwelcome changes after their provider dies, or after they lose their income. But change is not the enemy anymore. Instead, our customers are embracing change.

Let me give you an example. Robinson's electronic children are helping doctors find new ways to keep us alive longer. If I think I'll be jogging when I'm 85, and if my spouse makes more money than I do anyway, I'll be less worried about what happens to my children if I die at 35.

So when I look at life insurance, I ask myself: What can this do to help me hold onto the money I'm making?

I'm not worried about my family outliving me; I'm worried about outliving my own money! As a result, new life insurance products should include investment attributes.

Companies like ourscompanies that are quick on their feet and that are looking aheadthese are the companies that will thrive. The companies that leave change to endless committee meetings are the very companies that will go under or get swallowed up.

Change may seem scary, but for Crown Life, change is exciting.

Thank you.