12 Questions with Mark Cravens
Welcome to 12 Questions, a Q&A series where we pose the same set of 12 questions to intriguing folks at the intersection of insurance, risk management, commercial real estate, and digital innovation.
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This week, we chat with Mark Cravens, Principal at Cravens Consulting.
1. What is the most interesting idea you’ve encountered in your world lately?
Resilience in nature occurs naturally, but is not accidental; resilience for humankind requires intention and design. It is a unique opportunity of sorts.
2. Where do you think no one is looking right now?
Better, clearer ways to describe and qualify uncertainty in risk analytics. Uncertainty is the essence of risk, more of a dynamic than a quantifiable value. What is the nature of the "right answer”?
3. If you had a magic wand, what would you change about your industry?
See my previous answer...
4. What’s the most rewarding part of what you do?
Figuring out how to make things work, especially when connecting people, processes, and ideas in new ways.
5. What do you envision the next 12 months will bring?
Based on the last 12 months, I have to ask if this is a trick question… I would say stabilization around new norms, which will be a lot tougher than it sounds. For instance, I don’t think office life and business travel will look quite the same as they did in 2019, at least not for a long while.
Hopefully, we will be able to maintain and nurture the irreplaceable value of working together on a problem in the same room. One may not have to be “on-site” to execute one’s responsibilities, but it is when we work directly with and in the presence of others that great work happens, at least in my experience.
6. What’s your favorite building?
Tough to choose, but if I had to pick, it would be St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, Christopher Wren’s masterpiece. From the crypt to the galleries in the dome, I find everything fascinating.
7. Please dispel a myth or misconception about your work.
That risk analytics makes decisions clearer and easier.
8. What are the tools, apps, or gadgets that you just can’t live without?
My tablet along with its stylus, my phone, a decent and dedicated workspace, and a microwave to reheat the coffee I keep forgetting I was drinking.
9. What’s your biggest pleasant surprise related to remote work?
The ability to control one’s day a bit more, as well as the ability to look at work-life balance from a different perspective.
10. What’s your favorite productivity tip for staying motivated and getting work done?
Get up and move around, stay hydrated, and call your friends!
11. What or who do you read/watch to keep informed?
I also ask my wife what she’s looking at, which is almost always something creative, entertaining, or both.
12. Nominate two people who should answer this next. Why?
Kate Stillwell, Founder and CEO of Jumpstart Insurance. Her vision, dedication, and determination are inspiring.
Matthew Grant, Partner at InsTech London. As someone closely involved in the InsurTech realm, he will have some top-down views of things in an ever-changing innovation space.
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