Executive Outlook 2022: Silvy Wright, Northbridge Financial Corporation

Silvy Wright, President and CEO, Northbridge Financial Corporation

As we reflect on another unprecedented year, the ability to provide a high standard of uninterrupted, responsive service and solutions that help our customers run safer businesses continues to be paramount.

We will be leveraging new technologies and data science to better inform how we manage our business, improve risk mitigation, create new customer experiences and enhance our broker experience. In 2022, we will launch a digital connectivity solution for commercial lines. This digital investment will not only improve efficiency for brokers by directly exchanging submission and quote data between our systems, but also optimize our mutual growth and improve the customer experience.

Moving into 2022, there are several areas the industry will need to monitor. Our market will be impacted by solid economic growth but will also need to contend with rising inflationary pressures. The industry will be transitioning to a hybrid work environment and dealing with an increasingly competitive landscape for recruiting and retaining talent. Some of this is uncharted territory.

As catastrophic weather events are becoming more frequent, we will be expected to increase our focus on the climate agenda and examine our investments in sustainability. We cannot be alone in this focus. The climate agenda must be shared with our regulators, governments and communities – collaboration among the various stakeholders is critical.

As digitization continues, cybersecurity and cyber protection is a further headwind. We expect the current trend of increasing cyberattacks to continue, accelerated by e-commerce and businesses managing remote workforces. Carriers and brokers must continue to focus on educating businesses about the need for cyber coverage – although many are aware of cyber threats, most underestimate their risk, and the need to prepare and be protected.

See all the 2022 Outlooks here.