By coincidence read this in parallel with LinkedIn article by Thomas Verduzco-Weisel . We discussed the opportunities and challenges that changes such as the introduction of autonomous vehicles will have on carriers, reinsurers and new competitors. He said: 

" Per their Insurance of the Future report, Deloitte suggests that by 2025 there will be 3 business models in hashtag#insurance in Belgium which is described as a mature market with rapidly changing landscape: 

➡️ Core insurer: Companies focusing on core insurance products and skills ensuring a perfect customer experience 

➡️ Beyond insurer: Companies with additional services providing added-value for the customer 

➡️ Exponential insurer: Companies leveraging external partnerships to grow in new markets and being part of winning ecosystems To me, these are only transformational stages. Insurers will have to evolve towards a two-fold strategy and business model: 

1. #EmbeddedInsurance, i.e. making the core products and services available as white label inside other industries’ #customerjourneys

2. #Orchestrator of customer services or at least be part of such an #ecosystem"

Whichever route an insurer takes it needs a technology partner and digital insurance platform that enables :

  1. True iterative development (not waterfall in agile wolf's clothing)
  2. Fail fast/fail often to learn from mistakes and innovate for real competitive advantage
  3. No-code build by the business for fast and continuous innovation.

More than that insurers seek to move into services but that puts them in direct competition with supply chain partners and new entrants. They had better gain the skills and resources to succeed in new areas and insist technology partners support them fully. Or partner with insurance services specialists.

This is when vision, strategy, resourcing and leadership all come into play. 

Verduzco-Weizel poses the questions being; 

 A) Will insurers only dare to embark on their multi-year transformational journey under guidance and direction of a big consultancy? Can they afford to pay millions AND be slow?  

OR

B) Can they empower themselves by just DOING it and investing the same millions in making their own experiences? 

What are your thoughts?

Mine are that they must be brave and make the decisions themselves bringing in the talent and outside transformation expertise to set the strategy and vision and leverage the new breed of agile insurtechs that foster constant innovation, are scalable and deliver the differentiation and competitive advantage to establish market leadership i.e. top 5 in any product category and/or region.  

McKinsey has already forecast that just four to five such insurers will share the majority of premiums and profits in each sector so it is vital to ensure you are one of those. See Exhibit 4 in McKinsey's “Time for Insurers to face Digital Reality”.  

The only other option is to take a short-term view, milk a cash machine and have the market completely in a few years. Hardly a strategy a major insurer would admit to.