Objective: to move the giant
El insurance sector it has finally reached a stage of profound reforms. We are living in the best time to work in the sector and the need for change applies at all levels, making the challenge even more fun. No one can expect their department or their own work to not evolve in a disruptive way in the coming years. And we found many examples: the actuary using Machine learning, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) And the Neuromarketing or the claims processor and virtual reality, to put only three. In this business transformation we are talking about, one of the key elements for its promotion is the “urgency” factor. In other words, it's more urgent for Yellow Pages to be digital than for Pepe's fish market in Boltaña. Is it urgent in the case of the insurance sector? A recent study by Accenture explains that if GAFAs (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon) offered financial services, 29 percent of respondents would switch their insurance to these entities. But then, if the need to transform is demonstrated, why is it so difficult for the sector that represents 6% of Spanish GDP to innovate? The first insurance company to appear in BCG's innovation ranking is ranked 30th, a long way from Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.
The fear of losing out
According to the firm's study Watch & Act, close to 80% of CEOs believe that internal innovation fails out of fear of losing out. Although this figure does not belong exclusively to insurance sector, serves as a reference and reminds me of what we are experiencing with the private transport industry. We have all seen the images of taxi drivers in Paris protesting against VTC drivers such as Cabify and Uber, or we have suffered a strike organized by the taxi union in Spain. This behavior underlines the fear of many taxi drivers to face reality: 25,000 VTC in France are gaining customers from the 40,000 Parisian taxis and the same situation could happen very soon in Insurance if a more attractive service is not offered. Artificial Intelligence is already a reality, in addition to many other technologies, and it is possible that insurance intermediaries or taxi drivers will not disappear, but it seems clear that it will drastically change the way in which they work now due to the technological boom.
Customers are knocking on the door to ask for a change and startups They have understood
Las startups They are by definition Tech Focus. Many seemingly untouchable industries have been destroyed by technology companies and there's no reason for Insurance to be saved. Examples are numerous in the most diverse sectors such as Retail (Amazon), Hospitality (Airbnb), Average (Facebook) or Art (Artsy) .To create an innovative solution, it is not necessary for any member of the Board of Directors of an insurance company to rent a garage in Silicon Valley, as the legend goes, but it is essential to stop to find a way to combat fear of change and understand that technology is not a threat. How? With a team prepared to fully integrate digital into the company's strategy.La digital transformation is a challenge for any industry that emerged before the Internet. Nowadays, customers are looking for a value proposition that includes a reasonable price, product on demand, a good experience... This is how Amazon becomes a reference destined to shake up all the markets in which it is allowed to operate. The traditional company needs to rethink its strategy: from product to distribution, through human resources. It is true that moving a giant is difficult, but not impossible, and the elements that new technologies bring with them (Big Data, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, CRM...) are the key to success in the future. Finally, I want to mention what is for me a good sign of change in a “insurance giant” and this is the release of Santalucía IMPULSA, which creates an innovation model based on trust of its employees and in collaboration with startups.No, I'm not saying it's easy, but here I like to quote Argentinian film director Fernando Birri. The writer Eduardo Galeano says that after a conference with the filmmaker both answered questions from university students. Then, one of them asked Birri: “What is utopia for?” And he answered: “I ask myself that question every day because utopia is on the horizon. If I walk ten steps, utopia will go ten steps away; if I walk twenty, it will go twenty. I know I'll never reach it. What is it for? For walking.” Therefore, let's be utopian. Let us move on the back of that giant towards utopia, towards transformation, “from good to great”.
Author: Emmanuel Djengue
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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA [/caption]Emmanuel Djengue He is the Marketing Director of INESE. He has been in the sector for several years with the firm intention of ideating, designing and developing innovative projects to offer a more attractive service. Currently, it is part of the renowned community Global Shapers, backed by the World Economic Forum, where she leads a social project focused on new generations, digitalization and sustainability. He declares himself to be “a millennial who believes in Insurance” and a promoter of “Make insurance Sexier”.
