Five Emerging Trends for the Insurance Industry

Five Emerging Trends for the Insurance Industry
Over the past few months, I have delivered a number of insurance oriented keynotes and, later this week, Ill be addressing a conference on Emerging Technologies for the insurance industry. While I cover a wide variety of trends in the information technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology sectors, here are five trends already impacting the insurance industry and which will only grow more prevalant over the coming years:

1. Genomics: Since 1998, the price of sequencing a base pair of genes has plummeted 100 million-fold. An individual can now have his or her genome sequenced for about $10,000. Obviosly, this still isnt practical or affordable for the average person but the price will soon decrease to $1000 and then $100and eventually even lower. The impact on human health will be profound and the implications for the insurance insurancein terms of life expectancy alonewill be immense.

2. Gaming Dynamics: The ability for smartphones to monitor everything from a persons heart rate and blood pressure to their glucose levels is impressive. To date, however, most of this data was just collected and then transferred wirelessly to healthcare providers who helped the patient make sense of it. This is about to change and gaming dynamics will lead the way by providing users new ways to engage, interact and, ultimately, control their own healthcare. Imagine, for example, receiving a lower insurance rate because you could verify that you exercised for 40 minutes and burned 400 calories. The potential for gaming dynamics to unleash new, innovative business models for the insurance industry is real.

view full post »

The Specialization Of The Construction Industry

Today’s Construction industry has become quite competitive. Contractors are required to me efficient, cheap, and punctual. For either a new construction project, or a remodel, contractors have the challenging task of assigning the exact price for the completed work. In addition to the obvious cost calculations for the material costs such as foundation materials, lumber, roofing, doors and windows, cabinets, carpet, paint, appliances, plumbing, electrical wiring, landscaping, and many other things, they also have to calculate the time for each task to be completed and determine the labor costs for the construction project. In the past, one contractors quote may have varied greatly from the next, simply because of the many variables involved. Construction time was usually the target that was missed the most.

Computers and software developed for contractors has enabled contractors to work more efficiently. With the use of specialized software, contractors are able to provide more accurate quotes, and determine these figures in a much shorter amount of time. The quotes provided are usually more uniform depending on the contractors own markup.

The construction industry has become so refined, that many teams of workers are assigned to their specific task. When that task is completed, their job is done, and in comes the next team. For example, once the foundation had been built, the framing team needs to come in, followed by the plumbing team and electrical team. Next is the drywall team, the carpet team, the paint team, etc. What is impressive is that each team has specific estimating software for their stage of the construction process. T

view full post »

The Importance of Experience in the Construction Industry

Do you really need experience for a construction job? Several would say that experience is not really necessary, and many construction companies do hire workers with no experience for smaller jobs. But according to James Day, an experienced AECOM public health engineer, experience is vital especially for construction and engineering students. “Start looking for work experience as early as you can, even in your first year,” Day advices students. “Dont wait for your departments work placement tutors to feed opportunities to you.”

And Day isnt the only one who thinks experience is essential. Most graduate recruiters agree that construction-related experience really improves a graduates chances of landing job offers in the future. In the TARGET jobs recruiters board held last year, majority of recruiters pointed out that generally, when it came to job offers graduates who had industry work experience were better able to answer pertinent questions and tackle assessment exercises.

Benefits of Experience

view full post »

What Are The Main Industries In Kenya

Kenya is the most industrialised country in East and Central Africa. Other countries in this region have for a long time been looking up to Kenya because of her strong political as well as economic strength.

Agriculture has over the years been the backbone of Kenyas economy. This is the most vibrant of all industries in the country and this country has therefore been the source of many agricultural products for export. This industry is well distributed across the country with different regions favouring the growth of various agricultural products depending mostly on climatic conditions. The Rift Valley is in particular identified with the growth of cereals like maize, wheat and sorghum as well as beef farming and milk production. Other parts of this region are also famous for horticultural products like flowers and fruits which make Kenya a major exporter of these products across the world. The Central region is on the other hand identified with the production of coffee and tea as well as a variety of nuts and fruits. All of the above products are majorly for export as well as for local consumption. Other parts of the country that are largely involved in major agricultural products include the Western part of Kenya where fishing is the main agricultural activity.

Besides agriculture, tourism is the other main industry in Kenya. Over the years, Kenya has been widely known for her diverse wildlife and cultural activities. This stature was further boosted in the recent past when Kenya was put on the international spotlight for her famous Maasai Mara Game Reserve. This was as a result of the now world renown phenomenon: the wildebeest migration that is witnessed around the months of August and September every year.

view full post »