This year, Asia Insurance Review turns 35. For most human adults, this age is when you’ve properly hit your stride and can see your future laid out in front of you; career, marriage, maybe children, everything seems clear and within your grasp, and all you need to do is reach out and take it.
The same applies for us here at AIR. The future is clear for us, even if the path is littered with obstacles. We know what we need to do to thrive, all we need to do is make sure we don’t stumble along the way.
At the same time, we have to also continue delivering the news and the information for which the industry has come to rely on us. This is a good time, probably the best time, for us to look back at our humble beginnings and to see how far we’ve come, and how we’ve built the reputation that we have over the past 35 years. It is especially valuable to those of us who were not there at the early days of the magazine, when our founders were still trying to find their footing and still creating the identity and brand of Asia Insurance Review.
It is particularly important for me. This year marks my tenth year with the magazine and the beginning of my second as Editorial Director. I have very large shoes to fill, and the prospect of carrying the magazine through another ten years is daunting, especially considering the state of the world we live in.
AI continues to both challenge and excite; those of us in the journalism and writing business know how easy it is for us to be replaced by a machine (who won’t even do half as good of a job but will still be considered ‘good enough’). The constant challenge of attempting to deliver value beyond just the words on the page is never-ending but also rewarding.
It is, however, fortunate for us to be working with the insurance industry, famously a ‘people industry’. The relationships that AIR has built over the years, both as a company and as individuals will hopefully continue to help us in doing our job and help serve the industry.
For the rest of the year, in each issue, we will be publishing one of our older articles, a look back at the annals of history for both AIR and the Asian insurance industry, a reminder of the valuable work that we do. I hope you’ll find this perusal through nostalgia to be as enlightening for you as it is for me. A