IAI Actuarial Core Principles · Business Management · Using data, company functions, people skills, influence and clear communication
Vikram, an actuary at a Delhi insurer, must persuade the finance director to fund a data-cleansing project. The director distrusts technical jargon and cares about cost and regulatory risk. Which approach best combines influence with clear communication?
Vikram should summarise the business case in plain language, link the cost to lower regulatory and reserving risk, and invite questions. This tailors the message to the director's concerns. Bypassing, pressuring or omitting uncertainty would erode trust and breach the duty to communicate clearly and honestly.
- APresent a detailed technical paper on data models and rely on the director's seniority to approve it
- BEscalate to the CEO to bypass the director
- CSummarise the business case in plain language, link the cost to reduced regulatory and reserving risk, and invite questionsCorrect
- DStress the urgency and imply that refusal will be blamed on the director
- Offer only the favourable estimates and omit the uncertainty to keep the message simple
Explanation
Effective influence tailors the message to the audience's concerns, here cost and regulatory risk, in plain language, and invites dialogue. Bypassing, pressuring or hiding uncertainty damages trust and conflicts with the Actuaries' Code duty to communicate clearly and not mislead. Jargon-heavy papers ignore the audience.
Did you get it right without looking?
One question tells you little. A timed set on Using data, company functions, people skills, influence and clear communication shows your real accuracy, how long you take and where you lose marks.
More Using data, company functions, people skills, influence and clear communication questions
- A mid-level actuary must present findings on policyholder persistency to the sales team of an Indian life insurer, who have no statistical t…
- Ms Iyer, an appointed actuary, finds that her valuation result depends heavily on a long-term lapse assumption which is highly uncertain. Th…
- An actuary must explain to a pension fund's trustees, who are retired teachers, why the funding level fell despite positive investment retur…
- Meera, an appointed actuary, finds that a draft summary prepared by the CFO of her Chennai insurer rewrites her advice to say that reserves …
- Ishita, a senior actuary at a Chennai insurer, notices that her team of six has strong technical analysts but nobody who challenges plans, n…
- A company's customer database in Chennai contains names, phone numbers and policy details. An actuary wishes to share an extract with an ext…