Quoted several times in article on the value of information and how the industry is unlikely to ever get too much. Information is critical so insurance decision making; managing it is becoming far more difficult.

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FROM THE MAY 2012 ISSUE OF TECH DECISIONS • SUBSCRIBE!
TMI is Never Bad
How much information is considered too much information when it comes to business decisions?
There are those who believe they already know enough to handle just about any situation and they’ve come
to rely on gut instincts. These people are sometimes admired for this ability, but has enough measurement
been done to determine if those gut choices are great decisions or merely good ones?
Baseball managers are known to “throw out the book” when they make difficult choices that aren’t supported
by the game’s conventional wisdom, although going by the book means relying on old measurements that are
often based on incomplete data.
Observers of the game often are derided for studying new ways to solve old problems as if the game is some
mysterious art form that can’t be broken down into basic building blocks that can be solved by a thorough
examination of the problem.
In many ways, baseball managers are like underwriters who have been doing their job so long they feel their
reaction to certain triggers enables them to make the right decisions.
Certainly those qualities put them in an excellent position as decision-makers, but as similar as some
circumstances seem to be, we know that no two are ever identical and it’s the wise person—armed with more
than instinct—who recognizes even the most subtle of differences.
BY ROBERT REGIS HYLE, PROPERTYCASUALTY360.COM
May 1, 2012 • Reprints
Page 1 of 2TMI is Never Bad | PropertyCasualty360
5/12/2012http://www.propertycasualty360.com/2012/05/01/tmi-is-never-bad

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Predictive analytics has enhanced what underwriters do. It certainly hasn’t replaced the experience they have
gained. That experience gives them the edge in knowing where to look for answers and a reminder that
events don’t always play out the same way.
Tech Decisions recently hosted a Webinar on the use of analytics called: “The Analytics Gold Rush:
Mountains of Data, Hidden Profits.”
Steve Callahan of Robert E. Nolan Co. and Alan Rault of American Family Insurance explained how vital
analytics can be for the performance of your company. They have “the book” on analytics, but that hasn’t
stopped them from being quizzical. Nolan and Tech Decisions surveyed our readers on the subject and I’d
like to share a small nugget with you.
When asked which factors leadership decisions typically rely on, experience is “almost always” relied on,
which is hardly a surprise. The good news is intuition and collaborative consensus are “typical/common” for
decision making, and the use of historical and predictive analytics is moving up among decision makers.
No one is using analytics “exclusively” according to the survey. Analytics, much like experience, is a tool for
business leaders to take advantage of. Combine it with other factors and you will get better decisions—the
kind that make you money.
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