Page 143 - Be Reasonable – Do It My Way , Peter E. Daly AM, My Story

CHAPTER 13 - NORWICH WINTERTHUR INSURANCE AUSTRALIA LTD
• We are now well into the new year, the appropriate time to make a new resolution as we are in the midst of great changes.
• Not long ago the future was seen as something that would be a gradual improvement on, but not substantially different from, the present.
• Unfortunately, our future will not be like that.
• It is coming at us in waves... and fast! It is not 10 years hence; it is next week; even tomorrow. We have no time for leisurely contemplation. We cannot see far ahead-a less comfortable situation, but more exciting and exhilarating.
• The insurance industry faces an enormous task to keep pace with the changes in our market. The response to the rapid change must be both quick and innovative. Organisations
such as ours will survive and prosper only if we have the courage to innovate and the desire and vision to adapt to vastly changed conditions.
• The threat of monopolisation of workers compensation is bound to take its toll on the industry. We are not immune and if the state governments are successful we, over the next couple of years, will forfeit a sizable proportion of income, which supports our employment.
• The contributions this income is making to the group’s trading result is quite considerable and many other of the 50 or so underwriters will also be in the same predicament-at the crossroads, debating the future and with it their resolutions for 1985 and beyond.
• Call it what you will... Insurers will be facing a loss of premium income and it will not be surprising if we once again witness the cutting of each other’s throats in a fight for market share.
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