Mundane Insurance

Manufacturing industries are a common knowledge as are the likes of the motor car, television, foodstuffs and electrical goods that exist around us every day and are forcefully advertised. Banking too but it is only true to a lesser degree regarding insurance because if canvasing the average person in the street about insurance they would think only about their life insurance, health insurance, motor cover, house and contents, pet plan insurance and so on. Put like that, it is all very wearisome and therefore hardly a subject worth writing about, or is it? That was certainly the author’s impression of insurance even up to the point of moving into the financial sector from manufacturing industry.

Pursuing the subject a step further, hazarding a guess, if those very same people were quizzed regarding the types of people they imagined are employed in insurance they would probably describe their insurance broker or simply a voice at an insurance call centre. This account therefore will, in all probability, dispel the notion that all insurance dealings are routine and in the main, predictable as did an international group of young insurance delegates at a Middle East seminar, many of whom were totally unaware that the insurance industry’s activities were so diverse.

This is an account of an engineer who stumbled into loss control and safety that was in the fullness of time to exceed four decades that the author never had an inkling of upon joining the army apprentices college direct from school at the age of 15. Serving both home and on active service overseas with the British Army, as an artisan, was subsequently invalided out. Immediately following discharge gained employment with Ford Motor Company where ultimately a career in loss control and safety followed attaining a senior engineering appointment due to additional qualifications and experience, all within a few years.

The Ford experience led to far more challenging posts in the financial sector employed by international insurers that entailed surveying, appraising and investigating claims related accidents, across the five continents, visiting in all seventy-six countries. Reaching executive status with two major insurers was the sole author of seven risk management manuals and in excess, one hundred guidance standards. By virtue of being considered as an authority in loss control and risk management, he was an invited guest speaker at a number of international risk management conferences during his days in insurance. Mundane Insurance is a chronicle of some of the most invigorating and illuminating cases and experiences from a largely unknown profession.