sigma
Categories
Knowledge
Swiss Re
Time
1.1.1968
The crucial move toward a high-profile research programme at Swiss Re came in 1959 when the Economics Department was added. The new unit absorbed the existing bulletin service with its daily digests of industry media news from around the world. Initially, the bulletins were printed in runs of just a few hundred copies, along with a slim "Information Bulletin" in English (later the English language edition of "Experiodica") for the international client base.
Determined to market its information and research services more effectively, the company rebranded the bulletins; from January 1968 the name "sigma" would grace the cover of Swiss Re's monthly research publication. The January 1969 edition of sigma was the first to review the previous year's catastrophe claims, now a well-known regular feature that started out in tabular form without further comment and ran five pages.
Increasingly, sigma covered issues with a bearing on important decision-making processes in the insurance industry, and it broadened the spectrum of analytical methods employed. By the late 1980s, more than 6,700 copies of sigma and 5,800 copies of Experiodica were printed per edition.
The strategy proved a success: in 1995 and again in 1997, sigma won the "Analyst/Researcher of the Year" title awarded by the industry publication "The Review." Moreover, sigma was early to recognise the potential of the Internet and has been available online since 1996. In comparison to these original research studies, Experiodica as a mere news bulletin became obsolete and was discontinued in 1995.
By publishing sigma, Swiss Re's Economic Research & Consulting Department today provides one of the world's leading series of publications for the insurance industry. Ranging from individual studies to the annual reviews "World insurance" and "Natural catastrophes and man-made disasters," sigma is published in as many as six languages, with a print circulation of 11,000 copies distributed in 113 countries across six continents.
Determined to market its information and research services more effectively, the company rebranded the bulletins; from January 1968 the name "sigma" would grace the cover of Swiss Re's monthly research publication. The January 1969 edition of sigma was the first to review the previous year's catastrophe claims, now a well-known regular feature that started out in tabular form without further comment and ran five pages.
Increasingly, sigma covered issues with a bearing on important decision-making processes in the insurance industry, and it broadened the spectrum of analytical methods employed. By the late 1980s, more than 6,700 copies of sigma and 5,800 copies of Experiodica were printed per edition.
The strategy proved a success: in 1995 and again in 1997, sigma won the "Analyst/Researcher of the Year" title awarded by the industry publication "The Review." Moreover, sigma was early to recognise the potential of the Internet and has been available online since 1996. In comparison to these original research studies, Experiodica as a mere news bulletin became obsolete and was discontinued in 1995.
By publishing sigma, Swiss Re's Economic Research & Consulting Department today provides one of the world's leading series of publications for the insurance industry. Ranging from individual studies to the annual reviews "World insurance" and "Natural catastrophes and man-made disasters," sigma is published in as many as six languages, with a print circulation of 11,000 copies distributed in 113 countries across six continents.
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Categories
Knowledge
Swiss Re
Time
1.1.1968
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