office long before a diverse Bermuda market emerged, has warned the market can only succeed if it embraces a rapidly changing world.

Retiring Insurance Advisory Committee chairman Brian R. Hall observed yesterday during the Bermuda Insurance Institute (BII) luncheon at the Princess Hotel, "Global, strategic thinking, action and bold initiatives into the future will be essential for our success. We can never go back to basics; the tide surge of new innovations will overwhelm us if we do. "We must be progressive, utilising the best skills and intellectual capital we can afford to launch us into the next millennium.'' He said future success will depend increasingly on the speed of response to external change in an age of shifting market forces, organisational restructuring and increasingly complex relationships.

"The industry is moving into non-traditional areas in search of new competitive advantages in a world of more rapid changes,'' he offered. "So what must we do to prevent (Bermuda's insurance) industry slipping from first to last? I cannot give you a technical answer to that question. I don't know the current hot buttons and issues anymore. That's why I'm stepping down. But you know them. You know what you've got to do to stay on top.

"What I will say is that in the past, Bermuda has demonstrated a can-do spirit of persistence in the face of change and I would strongly suggest you not abandon that spirit.

Picture: Page 35 Insurers must `embrace change' "Remember, nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. There's nothing more common than unsuccessful men with talent.

"Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

"Education will not. The world is full of educated derelicts.

"Persistence and determination alone, are omnipotent. They are also among the key characteristics of our industry. Let's not forget them.'' Mr. Hall recalled significant mistakes of a growing Bermuda market, prior to 1985, when Bermuda captives leapt at a chance to write third party business, before looking to see what they were letting themselves in for.

But a period of insolvencies meant that Bermuda developed a reputation for efficient liquidations -- a reputation that has been retained.

Mr. Hall reflected on how the local market has grown so far beyond the basic captive domicile of his youth.

"We have `conquered' the world over this time,'' he said, "and it hardly seems possible that we have been through so much.'' "Today,'' he observed, "we are offering SPVs, segregated cell captives, insurance derivatives, securitisation, integrated risk products, basket aggregates, concentric risks, commoditisation, synthetic capital, convergence, finite products, etc. All from very basic, early beginnings of `selling' captives and alternative solutions.'' He recalled when a BII luncheon consisted of a much smaller crowd, all of whom he knew -- as opposed to today when he knows fewer and fewer people. That's a testimony, he said, to how the industry has expanded, and grown in diverse ways.

"In fact,'' he smiled, "the only thing that is the same today, as was then, is the chicken on the menu!''