It's the Impact, Stupid!

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I'm sure that, in preparing their remarks, my predecessors reread many of previous ARIA presidential addresses. I was different in this regard. In identifying a potential topic, it was clear that I was far from ideal candidate to comment further on matters relating to diversity - a theme highlighted in Norma Nielson's remarks last year. The elimination of this as a possible topic was a no brainer. As a white, Anglo Saxon, Protestant male, married to same person for 29 years, with 2.5 (actually 3) children, I am a poor example of diversity. As a leading-edge baby boomer, one of my top choices for a topic was a Message from an Old Man. Of course, this title had already been chosen by Jerry Jorgensen for his 1992 ARIA presidential address. How could any of my thoughts on this topic be more inspiring and elicit more emotion than Jerry's reading of cowboy poetry? Plus, as Jerry pointed out, he was the oldest person ever to be elected president of ARIA. It was clear that I had to look elsewhere for a topic. On a more serious note, I had an interest in commenting on change and its implications for risk management and profession. However, after rereading Joan Schmit's 1994 presidential address, Cycles, Context, and Change, I knew that anything that I could say on this topic would certainly fall far short of eloquence of Joan's remarks. Another possible topic dealt with integration of and insurance. This was especially appealing to me, considering that 1995 ARIA program which I chaired had a finance and insurance theme. But in reviewing Harold Skipper's 1993 presidential address, Risk Management and Insurance Education: Will We Miss Boat? it was clear that I could add very little to Skip's important insights. Neither could I be as suave in my delivery as Skip - at least in Jerry Jorgensen's eyes, and I suspect in eyes of everyone else, too.(1) To make matters worse, since my statistical skills are too rusty, I shied away from idea of presenting a rigorous scholarly paper as did Scott Harrington - ARIA's most handsome member according to Jerry Jorgensen and I suspect according to most others as well.(2) Well, it's time to move beyond these light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek comments and on to more serious remarks. Many of preceding addresses, at least indirectly, had this in common: they asked us to think carefully about impact that we have on risk management and policy and practice. If what we do is not highly valued by others and does not have a substantial impact, our profession is threatened - as it should be! Indeed, how many of us have been presented with a mandate for impact assessment relative to our curricula and what we do as educators? For these reasons, I have altered slightly famous slogan associated with 1992 Clinton presidential campaign, It's Economy, Stupid! and entitled my remarks, It's Impact, Stupid! My underlying theme is that our greatest worth lies in impact that our teaching, service, and research has on our various constituencies: our students, consumers, policy-makers, and financial services industry, in general. In many ways, teaching, research, and professional service activities are intertwined. When we share our knowledge and research findings in certain ways, we are providing meaningful service to our constituencies. I will address three traditional areas of academic life separately, however. Teaching I will initially focus my remarks on teaching. When I think of teaching and impact, I immediately think of traditional classroom experience and impact that we have in shaping students' lives and their future careers. All of us strive to provide relevant, up-to-date information to our students through a variety of instructional methods. We bring into classroom useful academic perspectives that are often lacking in business world. …