If you step outside on a quiet night, clear your mind, and cup your ear with your hand you may be able to hear the faint sounds of leaders in the insurance industry saying, "I'm mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore!"
Well, maybe not exactly those words, and maybe you won't actually hear it, but suffice it to say that the tides of insurance innovation being considered an oxymoron are changing.
How do we know this? Because we see evidence of leaders in and around insurance letting go of certain paradigms, and making an effort to think differently. How are they doing that? By killing something.
Of course I mean figuratively. Violence never solves anything, in my opinion. In this case, what's being killed is one or both of the following:
- The notion that the insurance industry is in the business of selling policies;
- The notion that the insurance industry is bound by policy (i.e. rules, regulations or internal practices that feel like rules and regulations).
The best innovation leaders are challenging one or both of the above in envisioning the future of their business.
There are varying degrees and approaches to "killing the policy" happening right now. Some of these companies are doing it to keep a current product or service alive and viable. Some are doing it to differentiate themselves dramatically from competitors. Some are doing it because they want to learn something valuable that can be useful in the future. Others are doing it to completely reinvent a category.
What can we learn from a few examples? See if you know which companies the following are referring to. (Answers are below.)
