Penny Black’s Insurance Week - 12 March

But it is less common to hear host nations express their own bafflement. Thus, it was refreshing to hear Marc Beaujean, board member at insurer P&V Belgium and a Belgian native, addressing his capital city’s apparent fixation with statutes of a small boy urinating. Showing a slide of the infamous Manneken Pis [literally meaning ‘little man pee’] during his speech at Guidewire’s Innovation in Insurance conference this week, he reflected sombrely – “Disney has the little mermaid. We have this guy. No one knows why.” It was a day for quips from the lectern, with Santam’s commercial lines business owner Luna Vogel responding to an audience member surprised that her firm had implemented a phase of its change programme so quickly by retorting “there were a lot of women on the project”. Coming one day after International Women’s Day, it was good to see a strong female businesswoman leading, and championing other women, from the front. Penny was most proud.

Follow Penny on Twitter

This article was published in the 12 March edition of Post magazine.