When opportunity knocks and you are facing the “deal or no deal“ moment of truth, can you close the deal, or are you among those that get close but cannot finish?

Since change is the only constant these days, your career management strategy needs to be an ongoing activity, and personal branding is one vehicle to drive your success for the future.

Our client is a global property and casualty insurance company. Our client offers personal insurance, business insurance, financial/professional and international insurance to broad range of consumer, small business, and corporate clients in the United States and selected international markets.

The SVP, A&H Senior Business Manager – US & Canada is the senior field executive responsible for the profitable performance and growth for our client’s Accident & Health operations in the U.S. and Canada. This role develops and maintains a complete understanding of the needs of customers, distribution, and employees in all Accident & Health lines. We are looking for a strategic leader who can drive the A&H North American Plan including: leading the current, technically-proficient, US and Canadian A&H teams, integrating the U.S. A&H operations into the U.S. field operations; building external distributor relationships; and transitioning our business to a broader consumer model.

The role of the SVP, Internet & Mobile Banking Strategy is to optimize our companies ability to meet customer expectations related to service and sales via the Internet and Mobile Banking channels, increase web-based revenue, improve web/mobile-based capabilities, and enhance the company’s online/mobile customer interactions for both service (OLB/Bill Pay) and sales.

A highly visible senior leadership position supporting 3 key segments across the footprint:

1. Business: (Small Business up to $5MM in sales revenue; SME -small/medium enterprises – $5 - $25; Mid-Corporate $500MM+)
2. Mass Affluent: (investable assets >$200K and <$1.5MM with us and >$500K and < $3MM elsewhere plus $250K income)
3. Top Customer: (top 10% of our households based on margin)

We at Executive Connections thought the attached report may be of interest to you!

Global CEO consensus suggests that being first to market may not be enough to lure customers back. The challenges that have moved up the year-on-year matched list of challenges to displace last year’s crisis-focused concerns include customer loyalty/retention (sixth place to fourth place), corporate reputation for quality products/services (15th place to sixth place), and stimulating innovation/creativity/enabling entrepreneurship (16th place to seventh place).

Transitions can be stressful and sometimes painful if you are not prepared—whether they’re due to a layoff, a new job, career change, or working extra hours because other workers were laid off. If you’re facing one, we want you to consider the following:

1. Let go of how things were “supposed to be" and accept “how things are." Stop looking in the rear view mirror. Find appreciation for what is. What is the message you can gain from this transition? Where are the miracles and the life lessons you can bring into your next move?
2. Take an honest personal inventory. Have a heart-to-heart with yourself and interview others. What are your strengths and weaknesses? Skills you will need to have going forward? What about you needs upgrading? What will you do differently? How will those influence—positively or negatively—your transition?

You can throw out the rule book! Change is real, it's upon us and it is here to stay. It can be scary, unfamiliar and even paralyzing. So how do we survive through such turbulent times?

Though we can't control the economy (who can?), we can control our response and reaction to it. Every crisis creates a positive by-product: opportunity. It's more important than ever to think creatively and adapt "on-the-fly" to seize those opportunities. Companies that do so will thrive, even during the most challenging times. So we say: be flexible, learn to adapt.

Here are some survival strategies for these uncertain times:

A Recession Is a Perfect Time to Get Ahead by Developing Fresh Products; Here's How to Kick-start the Process

by Patrick Hanlon

"Even as budgets are frozen and costs cut, companies still demand fresh thinking. Looking for a new and better way to come up with brilliant ideas? Start by innovating your innovation workshop.

Here, suggestions to kick-start your 2009 inspiration quest:

IMMERSION

First, do your homework. Grab all relevant data, reports and studies you've conducted or seen over the last year. Know the landscape, the trends, what's happening.

Identify your goals, your biggest challenge, your biggest opportunities. Determine how shifting U.S. demographics, international influences and societal trends such as sustainability will influence your product or service, and conversely, how your product or service impacts these trends.

KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

It's great to be blue sky, if your company pays for blue sky. But these days most people are looking for solid ground. Whether you think forward by thinking backward or go straight to granular, have definite outcomes in mind. Knowing what you want to get out of your session will help you have a better experience. And better ideas. The successful session comes back with some answers -- as well as better questions."

Reprinted with permission from AdAge.com, accessed Jan.19, 2009. Copyright, Crain Communications Inc. 2009.

Strategy Implementation Insights
McCreight & Co. -- Chapter 11 / Version 2.0 -- April 2008

"Talent is hard to find, costly to train, and difficult to keep. We encourage leaders to act quickly, clearly, and strategically when restructuring, then persistently engage those they do not want to lose . . ."

written by William Pennington,MA Coaching and NLP -- www.chicoaching.com © 2007

Action Learning Question: Against what set of competencies and capabilities will I identify my own coaching practice and identify development opportunities?