Description: The article discusses how to have important conversations with the people who make up your circle of influence, including those who work for you, peers and colleagues, clients, superiors, governing boards, and vendors and contractors. The author states that “your ability to use language well, to enter into conversations boldly and confidently, and to create strong relationships and demonstrate understanding across multiple groups and situations will absolutely determine your ability to create, sustain and maintain a profitable culture.”

Description: These 'Notes from the Editor' offer a run-down of topics covered in the August 2011 issue of The Independent Consultant, the newsletter of the Entrepreneurial Actuaries Section.

Description: Article describing how actuaries can contribute to solutions to climate change and other environmental issues.

Description: The author asserts that your brand, or reputation, cannot be manufactured. A successful brand is built on what is real and authentic about you. She provided some tips to help you fast-track your brand building.

Description: This article is a discussion of social media tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, MySpace, Friendwise, Yahoo! 360, Orkut, and Classmates and how they relate to entrepreneurial practitioners and the way they do their jobs.

Description: In his farewell article, the outgoing chairperson of the Entrepreneurial Actuaries Section solicits more ideas regarding how the section can better meet the needs of its members.

Description: The author discusses how to speak boldly, and that communicating as a professional and a leader is a powerful tool.

Description: In this article, the section chair of the Entrepreneurial Actuaries Section, ‘EAS,’ addresses the growth of the life actuarial profession. The author notes the significant growth in size of the profession in terms of membership, but cautions that calling us a growing profession on this basis only addresses the supply of actuaries, not the demand. The article then discusses current efforts to address the question of demand, noting that the EAS is in early discussions with other sections and the SOA staff to develop some measure of future demand for actuaries.

Description: In this article, the author discusses the benefits of writing an article that is jointly authored by you and another person. The article discusses different situations where the result can be an article that meets your strategic objectives, and also helps another business professional move ahead.

Description: In this column from the section chairperson, he suggests that in a world where 'too big to fail' is encouraged, entrepreneurs must adapt by developing marketing strategies and capabilities that deal effectively with both the end user of the services and the procurement professionals and process.