Much has been discussed as to the coming disruption of the insurance industry in emerging markets. While I believe that it is happening, I also believe that, contrary to the common held view of many of my peers, building a disruptive insurance platform in emerging markets is going to be a marathon and not a sprint. I do not claim to have all of the answers. In fact, we are not even close to having most of the answers, but we have learned a few things along the way. While many are quick to predict the demise of the traditional broker, I believe that the evolution of disruption within the insurance market will be one of natural selection. There are many highly profitable brokers in these markets that have a deep understanding of their customer, regulatory issues, market trends and simple common sense. Most are family-owned, with a new generation of family members anxious to take the helm. And while most of these brokers are not tech-savvy and certainly do not have regional or global aspirations, the ones of interest are forward-thinking and anxious to take on a new challenge as they clearly see how the winds of change are blowing. I see these brokers as natural partners, and by acquiring key brokers in each market the aspiring disrupter will gain immediate market share, revenues, EBITDA, customer and databases, infrastructure (yes, customers still like to talk on the phone), licenses and management talent. With those beachheads in place, you will be able to take the next step, which is to apply technology to the existing base. This can start with the basics; consolidating databases, cross-selling, upselling, retention, dashboard analytics moving ever further up the food chain to digital marketing, big data and someday the mysterious artificial intelligence. All of this creates short-term value, as you will see immediate increases in CAGR, EBITDA, retention rates and other key metrics, but that doesn't change the perception of insurance for the consumer. In simple terms, these changes are not disruptive and at the end of the day are boring for customers. See also: An Eruption in Disruptive InsurTech?   So what will be the secret sauce? The carriers are an integral part of the ultimate disruption process, as they will work with the broker and consumer to develop the transformational products that the new consumer is going to require. This will be a key part of the challenge, as this will require a radically new approach to product development and, of course, dissemination. Products will include temporary auto insurance, school insurance for books, computers and other needs, home office insurance (do you know how many new consumers work out of their home) and unique vacation insurance. These products will drive real value for shareholders, while at the same time we are ultimately improving the lives of our customers. I am convinced that one of the key secret ingredients for creating disruption within the emerging market insurance industry will revolve around product bundling and the great feeling you get when you believe that you just received a gift. It is also about being part of a contest and, yes, winning a prize. By partnering with leading manufacturers of cosmetics, sporting goods, automotive, school supplies, and fashion apparel, the aspiring disrupter can bundle these products with the underlying insurance product that their customer is buying and enjoys buying. In the most basic form, when our customer buys travel insurance they will receive free sun care products. If they buy school insurance, they receive free school supplies. It is a win-win for the product supplier, the customer and the insurer. If you think this is fluff, just ask the new consumers who are watching every penny in their budget. But that is not enough, as we want a long-term relationship with our customer. So in addition to all of the above we are sponsoring online contests. To promote scholastic achievement and safe driving, we will soon have one for the zaniest insurance videos, i.e. my homework was actually eaten by an iguana or my car was crushed by an elephant. All of this is meant to build a very real bond with the consumer, improving their lives along the way. The evolution of disruption in emerging markets has been interesting to observe, as the “the rage of the day” began more than two years ago with the aggregator model. Numerous well-funded ventures launched online insurance websites in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Thailand and many other markets with a few common traits. The ventures were not disruptive, they had no existing customer base and they had no real strategy for interacting with the new consumer. The majority of these online insurance portals were "aggregators," providing real-time or in some cases faster-time quotes from multiple insurance providers. The sites were often difficult to navigate and crowded and typically lacked originality. Soon, the novelty began to wear off as investors realized that "Build it and they will come" was not going to happen. Disruption became the flavor of the day, but most investors and operators didn't really grasp or even care what the term meant. The overriding concern was "getting traffic to the site," and, while digital marketing strategies were developed and bandied about, the fallback position quickly became traditional media. In one case, the dominant online insurance broker in Brazil was told by its investors that it would not receive the next tranche of capital unless it dramatically increased spending on TV, print and radio advertising. Yes, the media of the past had become today's agent for disruption. While spending millions of dollars on traditional media for insurance is still a fact of life in many mature markets, it can hardly be called disruptive or for that matter even efficient. The next phase of evolution came in the form of "digital marketing" and mobile apps. As smart phones typically outnumber the average population in most emerging market countries (in Brazil, there are an estimated 280 million smartphones for a population of 200 million people), the logic stands that this is the best way to reach the consumer. But dig a little deeper and ask yourself a very simple question: How important is insurance in your day-to-day life? For all of us who are selling, packaging or creating insurance products, insurance is the center of the universe, but for the average consumer insurance rates a two or a three on a scale of one to 10, if that. See also: Pokémon Go Highlights Disruptive Technology  While the "next wave" was unfolding, other issues became noticeable. Many of the "disrupters" were country-centric, with no real plan or strategy for regional or global expansion, which seemed odd. After all, if you are planning to disrupt insurance in Chile, wouldn't you want to consider disrupting insurance globally, or at least in somewhat similar countries in Latin America? Some products, such as auto insurance, were seen as commodities that were as sexy to the consumer as a trip to the dentist, so the market screamed like banshees for new products; pet insurance, travel insurance, smartphone insurance, hotel insurance, sport insurance, bike insurance....the list goes on. We are increasingly living in an age of data overload, and we need to be very discerning as to the relationship we develop with the customer. We also need to be discerning about local markets. In China, online insurance companies popped up overnight, and many of them reached wild valuations by just selling a single product, like travel insurance. But, in Brazil, the market is much more mature, and travel insurance is about as new as samba. With a robust online presence, massive investments in traditional media, digital marketing, mobile apps and new products, things were sure to get disruptive, right? Wrong, as consumers were still using traditional brokers, and insurance was still not on their top 10 list. So what next? Could it be the vaunted but yet indefinable artificial intelligence? Within the span of two short years, we have moved from science fiction to science fact. What if, through AI, we could predict when our customer would have their next child, next house, car, divorce, marriage and even death? This would be real disruption, as we would be able to predict consumer behavior and in doing so create a "cradle to grave" lifecycle of products, sales, conversion and retention. The problem, of course, is that AI is still in its infancy, as there are very few 2001 Space Odyssey HAL computers in the world today. Even if we had mastered this technology, there is still a larger question of how to use it and deploy it. This question will inevitably be answered, but for now we still face the fundamental challenge of taking a very boring product and transforming it into something consumers actually get excited about. We also need to ask ourselves how we would scale across multiple countries in a relatively short time. That brings us to the end of our story, or, rather, the beginning. Disruption is coming to the insurance industry, and it will find fertile ground in the fast-growing emerging markets and the new consumer. The savvy insurance disrupter will gain massive amounts of data that will have value for a wide spectrum of partners.

April Fools' Day is just one day a year, but there are common mistakes an insight leader is prone to (and that could end up making him look like a fool) all year 'round. This isn’t surprising when you consider the breadth of responsibility within the customer insight leadership role. Such leaders have multi-disciplinary technical teams to manage and an increasing demand across from areas of modern business to improve decisions and performance. Like most of the lessons I’ve learned over the years, the following has come from getting it wrong myself first. So, there’s no need for any of my clients or colleagues to feel embarrassed. Beyond the day of pitfalls for the gullible, then, here are four common — but foolish — mistakes I see customer insight leaders still making. 1. Leaving data access control with IT Data ownership and data management are not the sexiest responsibilities up for grabs in today’s organizations. To many, they appear to come with a much greater risk of failure or at least blame than any potential reward. However, this work being done well is often one of the highest predictors of insight team productivity. Ask any data scientist or customer analyst what they spend most of their time doing, and the consistent answer (over my years of asking such questions) is "data prep." Most of the time, significant work is needed to bring together the data needed and explore, clean and categorize it for any meaningful analysis. But, given the negative PR and the historical role of IT in this domain, it can be tempting for insight leaders to leave control of data management with IT. In my experience, this is almost always a mistake. Over decades (of often being unfairly blamed for anything that went wrong and that involved technology), IT teams and processes have evolved to minimize risk. Such a controlled (and, at times, bureaucratic) approach is normally too slow and too restrictive for the demands of an insight team. I’ve lost count of how many capable but frustrated analysts I have met over the years who were prevented from making a difference because of lack of access to the data needed. Sometimes the rationale is data protection, security or even operational performance. At the root, customer insight or data science work is, by nature, exploratory and innovative, and it requires a flexibility and level of risk that run counter to IT processes. See also: 3 Skills Needed for Customer Insight To avoid this foolish mistake, I recommend insight leaders take on the responsibility for customer data management. Owning flexible provision of the data needed for analysis, modeling, research and database marketing is worth the headaches that come with the territory. Plus, the other issues that come to light are well worth insight leaders knowing well — whether they be data quality, data protection, or something regulation- or technology-related. Data leadership is often an opportunity to see potential issues for insight generation and deployment much earlier in the lifecycle. 2. Underestimating the cultural work needed to bring a team together Data scientists and research managers are very different people. Data analysts, working on data quality challenges, see the world very differently from database marketing analysts, who are focused on lead performance and the next urgent campaign. It can be all too easy for a new insight leader to underestimate these cultural differences. Over more than 13 years, I had the challenge and pleasure of building insight teams from scratch and integrating previously disparate technical functions into an insight department. Although team structures, processes and workflows can take considerable management time to get working well, I’ve found they are easy compared with the cultural transformation needed. This should not be a surprise. Most research teams have come from humanities backgrounds and are staffed by "people people" who are interested in understanding others better. Most data science or analysis teams have come from math and science backgrounds and are staffed by "numbers people" who are interested in solving hard problems. Most database marketing teams have come from marketing or sales backgrounds and are more likely to be motivated by business success and interested in proving what works and makes money. Most data management teams have come from IT or finance backgrounds and are staffed by those with strong attention to detail, who are motivated by technical and coding skills and who want to be left alone to get on with their work. As you can see, these types of people are not natural bedfellows. Although their technical expertise is powerfully complementary, they tend to approach each other with natural skepticism. Prejudices that are common in society and education often fuel both misunderstanding and a reluctance to give up any local control to collaborate more. Many math and science grads have grown up poking fun at "fluffy" humanities students. Conversely, those with a humanities background and strong interest in society can dismiss data and analytics folk as "geeky" and as removed from the real world. So, how can an insight leader avoid this foolish oversight and lead cultural change? There really is no shortcut to listening to your teams, understanding their aspirations/frustrations/potential and sharing what you learn to foster greater understanding. As well as needing to be a translator (between technical and business languages), the insight leader also needs to be a bridge builder. It’s worth remembering classic leadership lessons such as "you get what you measure/reward," and "catch people doing something right." So, ensure you set objectives that require cooperation and recognize those who pioneer collaboration across the divides. It’s also important to watch your language as a leader — it should be inclusive and value all four technical disciplines. 3. Avoiding commercial targets because of lack of control Most of us want to feel in control. It’s a natural human response to avoid creating a situation where we cannot control the outcome and are dependent on others. However, that is often the route to greater productivity and success in business. The myth still peddled by testosterone-fueled motivational speakers is that you are the master of your own destiny and can achieve whatever you want. Collaboration, coordination and communication are key to making progress in the increasingly complex networks in today’s corporations. For that reason, many executives are looking for those future leaders who have a willingness to partner with others and to take risks to do so. Perhaps it is particularly the analytical mindset of many insight leaders that makes them painfully aware of how often a target or objective is beyond their control. When a boss or opportunity suggests taking on a commercial target, what strikes many of us (at first) is the implied dependency on other areas to deliver, if we are to achieve it. See also: The Science (and Art) of Data, Part 1 For that reasons, many people stress wanting objectives that "measure what they can control’." Citing greater accountability and transparency for their own performance can be an exercise in missing the point. In business life, what customer insights can produce on their own is a far-smaller prize than what can be achieved commercially by working with other teams. Many years ago, I learned the benefit of "stepping forward" to own sales or marketing targets as an insight leader. Although many of the levers might be beyond my control, the credibility and influencing needed were not. Many insight leaders find they have greater influence with their leaders in other functions after taking such a risk. Being seen to be "in this together" or "on the spike" can help break down cultural barriers that have previously prevented insights being acted upon and that generate more profit or improve more customers’ experiences. 4. Not letting something fail, even though it's broken A common gripe I hear from insight leaders (during coaching or mentoring sessions) is a feeling of suffering for "not dropping the ball." Many are working with disconnected data, antiquated systems, under-resourced teams and insufficient budgets. Frankly, that is the norm. However, as aware as they are of how much their work matters (because of commercial, customer and colleague impact), they strive to cope. Sometimes, for years, they and their teams work to manually achieve superhuman delivery from sub-human resources. But there is a sting in the tale of this heroic success. Because they continue to "keep the show on the road," their pleas for more funds, new systems, more staff or data projects often fall on deaf ears. From a senior executive perspective (used to all the reports needing more), the evidence presents another "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” scenario. They may empathize with their insight leader but also know they are managing to still deliver what’s needed. So, requests get de-prioritized. In some organizations, this frustration can turn to resentment when insight leaders see other more politically savvy leaders get investment instead. Why were they more deserving? They just play the game! Well, perhaps its time for insight leaders to wake up and smell the coffee. Many years ago, I learned you have to choose your failures as well as your successes. With the same caution with which you choose any battles in business, it’s worth insight leaders carefully planning when and where to "drop the ball." How do you avoid this foolish mistake? Once again, it comes back to risk taking. Let something fail. Drop that ball when planned. Hold your nerve. If you’ve built a good reputation, chances are it will also increase the priority of getting the investment or change you need. You might just be your own worst enemy by masking the problem! Phew, a longer post than I normally publish here or on Customer Insight Leader. But I hope those leadership thoughts helped. Please feel free to share your own insights. Meanwhile, be kind to yourself today. We can all be foolish at times….

The main problem that blockchain solves results from the fact that computer databases simply cannot talk to each other without a layer of expensive fault-prone human administration or bureaucratic central authority controlling every node. Blockchain technology, on the other hand, is a single, decentralized database managed by software and shared by multiple users, without any third party authority. This makes processing transactions less costly and less error-prone. This software enables process efficiency because new links can form as needed, and improves organizational efficiency because no management gatekeepers are needed. The applicability of blockchains may include everywhere that many people may want to interact with a computer database. It is easy to imagine a tremendous breadth and depth of potential applications and markets. Centralization The traditional way to enable databases to communicate with each other is to consolidate and combine them into a single database, hoping that enough commonality would exist to patch them together. This approach is typical of mergers and acquisitions of corporations where two somewhat similar entities combine their data under a central authority. Efficiencies are gained in scale and elimination of redundancy. Unfortunately, centralization can also lead to inefficiencies such as top-heavy hierarchy, monopoly, obfuscation, stagnation and vulnerability to external shocks. Failures would often trigger blanket legislation and government regulations. Meanwhile, the original problem remains; how do these new mega databases communicate with other mega databases? See also: How Blockchain Will Reorganize Society   Decentralization The other way to eliminate intermediaries and enable data to be shared between organizations is for everyone to share the same database. Multiple writers can retrieve and populate data simultaneously with no controls, consensus or centralized authority. Natural organic links would form, and operations would become faster, cheaper and easier to perform and maintain. The network effect can take hold where the value of the network would grow exponentially. Unfortunately, there would be no way to stop a person from cheating another person, or going back to change the conditions of a contract, or giving himself a raise, or double spending a unit of account, etc. For decentralized databases, these are precisely the problems that blockchain solves. Before Bitcoin, if a person sent a contract over email, each party would hold an identical copy that could be easily manipulated. After Bitcoin, a person can send a contract electronically, and the receiving party would hold the only valid copy. While this may sound trivial at first, it is extraordinarily difficult for a computer to do. But it would allow computers to perform some of the functions that administrators routinely perform today at nearly every interaction with a computer. Not unlike what happened with mechanization in the last century, once achieved, the software-managed architecture will be faster, more reliable and cheaper while the marginal cost of adding additional capacity approaches zero. Centralized databases scale at the speed of bureaucracy. Blockchain may scale up to handle large and complex transactions or scale down to accommodate billions of micro-transaction with little difference in operations cost. Also like what happened with mechanization, society will certainly reorganize around these new forms of value creation and exchange. This is already evident with the extraordinary amount of venture and investment capital and creative new decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) pouring into blockchain space. See also: Why Insurers Caught the Blockchain Bug   Blockchain technology makes business cases that may never have been viable become brilliantly viable today. To use an engineering example, the invention of the hydrostatic wheel bearing eliminated enough mechanical friction from a steam locomotive that it could become a viable engine of economic growth. Likewise, blockchain technology holds the potential to eliminate a tremendous amount of friction from everyday transactions and agreements. For anyone reading this article while standing in line at the DMV, that is a problem that deserves to be solved. The innovation has just begun. (Adapted from; Insurance: The Highest and Best Use of Blockchain technology, July 2016 National Center for Insurance Policy and Research / National Association of Insurance Commissioners Newsletter: http://www.naic.org/cipr_newsletter_archive/vol19_blockchain.pdf)

Insurance M&A markets remained active in the first half of 2016 despite the lack of mega deals. The largest transaction this year was BB&T Corp. acquiring wholesale insurance broker Swett & Crawford for $500 million in cash from London-based Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford. On a relative basis, the announced deal activity and value declined compared with 2015, where we saw a record number of transactions in the sector. 2015 was a transformative year in the insurance sector, with several mega deals, including ACE Ltd.'s acquisition of Chubb Corp. for $28 billion, Tokio Marine acquiring HCC Insurance Holdings for $7.5 billion and Meiji Yasuda Life acquiring StanCorp Financial for $5 billion.

• Deal volume remains strong, with 232 announced deals in 1H 2106, 87% of which were composed of insurance brokers.
• There was a slight decline in transaction multiples with the median price-to-book multiple for insurance deals at 1.8x vs. 1.6x in 2H 2015.
• There were no mega deals (deals more than $1 billion) announced during 1H 2016. The largest deal announced was $500 million.

Highlights of 1H 2016 deal activity Insurance Activity Remains High: U.S. insurance deal volume had been steadily increasing since 2013. While volume remained high in 1H 2016, it has declined compared with the same period in 2015. Announced deal values in 1H 2016 were nowhere close to the record levels seen in 2015. Significant Transactions: BB&T announced its acquisition of Swett & Crawford Group, growing its wholesale brokerage business in the U.S. Massachusetts Mutual announced its acquisition of MetLife’s U.S. retail adviser force, allowing the expansion of its U.S. client base. MetLife chose to divest in response to the looming Department of Labor fiduciary rule. massa Key Trends and Insights Sub-sectors highlights

• The persistent low interest rate environment has weighed on life insurers’ investment portfolios. Furthermore, the unprecedented U.K. vote to break away from the EU increased the volatility of both the U.S. dollar and the euro value relative to the pound, and it decreased the likelihood of near-term rate increases by the Fed. Last year, major deals involved the largest Chinese and Japanese life insurers venturing out of their home markets. While Asian investors still have an active interest in expanding, regulatory uncertainty remains for Chinese buyers pending the resolution of the announced Fidelity & Guaranty Life acquisition. We expect momentum to pick up from small to medium-sized companies, as they are focused on building much-needed scale and the need to comply with enhanced regulations.
• The insurance broker segment continues to be the most active in terms of deal volume. This year, we have seen the five most active regional brokers to be Hub International, AssuredPartners, Arthur J. Gallagher, Confie Seguros California and Acrisure.

Conclusion and Outlook We expect activity to intensify for the remaining part of the year as insurers are focused on the disruption to their businesses because of technology, adapting to an evolving regulatory landscape and an uncertain macroeconomic environment.

• Technology: According to the 2016 PwC Global FinTech Survey, 21% of insurance business is at risk of being lost to standalone InsurTech companies within five years. The rise of shared mobility, the “gig” economy, robotics and sensors are disrupting several areas of insurance. Incumbents have been responding by direct investment in startups or by forming joint ventures to stay competitive. Recent examples include ACE’s investment in CoverHound and Marsh’s acquisition of Dovetail Insurance.
• Macroeconomic environment: The global market volatility, persistent low interest rates and the uncertainty around Brexit continue to constrain insurers’ revenues and profitability. Life insurers have used both divestitures and acquisitions to manage the damaging impacts of the low-return environment and transform their business models. There is renewed interest in diversifying asset management capabilities by way of acquisitions.
• Regulatory environment and shareholder activism: Increased scrutiny and uncertainty have heavily influenced insurers’ business models and strategies, forcing many to exit businesses. The recent DOL fiduciary rule continues to be an obstacle for life/annuity insurers, as it can cause insurers that use exclusive agents to evaluate their product offerings and firm structure. Recent examples include MetLife shedding its U.S. adviser unit to Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance and AIG selling its Advisor Group to Lightyear Capital and PSP Investments. AIG continues to simplify its organization, in part because of the aggressive stance from activist investor Carl Icahn.
• Foreign entrants: Asian insurers — specifically Japanese insurers looking for growth and Chinese insurers seeking diversification — have a continued interest in U.S. and European insurers.
• Private equity/hedge funds/family offices: Non-traditional firms have maintained strong interest in runoff, long-tail liabilities. They have expanded beyond insurance brokers and the annuities business to include other sectors within insurance, including managing general agents.

About the data: The information presented in this report is an analysis of deals in the insurance industry (excluding managed care) where the target company, the target ultimate parent company was located in the U.S. Deal information was sourced from S&P Global Market Intelligence and includes deals for which targets are: Insurance underwriter and insurance broker (multiline, property and casualty, life and health, title, mortgage guaranty and financial guaranty). Certain adjustments have been made to the information to exclude transactions that are not specific to the sector or incorporate relevant transactions that were omitted from the indicated mid industry codes. This analysis includes all individual mergers, acquisitions and divestitures for disclosed or undisclosed values, leveraged buyouts, privatizations and acquisitions announced between Jan. 1, 2014 and June 30, 2016, with a deal status of completion, definitive agreement or non-binding letter of intent. Percentages and values are rounded to the nearest whole number, which may result in minor differences when summing totals. This article was also written by Mark Friedman, Christopher Gaskin and Ritendra Roy.

InsurTech is rapidly growing and evolving, with a wide array of new startups: from technology companies serving the industry, to new distribution and insurance companies meeting new customer and risk needs. To quote a recent Majesco white paper, “Greenfields, Startups and Incubators … Innovation in Insurance,” “The number of insurance-related startups varies widely across different sources: Venture Scanner tracks 535 companies involved in the ecosystem (which includes investment companies, reinsurers and others), Celent puts the range at 400-1,500 depending on the source, and CB Insights reported in March 2016 that they were tracking over 135 startups in Insurtech across 13 categories.” These organizations are, as a group, innovative, creative, surprising and competitive. Many insurers are either funding startups, launching their own startups or discussing possible collaborations with startups. Some startups have a great idea but are a few technological steps away from being able to carry it out and have an agile, innovative back end system. Solution Shopping for Insurance Startups In a way, the whole market for startups could be compared to shopping for shoes. There are several ways you can buy shoes. You can order them online. You can get fitted at a retail store. With a little practice and some knowledge, you can even make your own shoes. You may only need a simple sandal. You may need something as complex as a hiking boot. The unifying element in shoe shopping is that most people buy their shoes because they need them, want to wear them right away and don’t want to have to go through the expense and time to make their own. They seek out a trusted brand, and they purchase through a trusted source. For insurance startups, it is important to have a partner that has an agile, innovative solution that can rapidly get your ideas to market without using a large portion of your seed or launch capital. If the partner has a ready-to-use cloud solution that can be deployed quickly in any situation (from the simple sandal to the sophisticated boot), then the solution will fit now, during launch and in the future, during growth. Speed to Value for a Rapid Launch Startups aren’t just launching systems; they are launching a business inclusive of products, services and more. In today’s new InsurTech world, startup costs often roll into product development, branding, distribution channels, user experience, filings and talent acquisition. But startups can’t afford to skimp on a having a front office and back office insurance solution with the content, capabilities, flexibility and scale needed today and, potentially, in the future. See also: How to Plant in the Greenfields So what options should be considered? At the top of the list, startups should consider a partner with a robust cloud insurance platform as a launch pad for their innovative business plan that provides a variable cost model with pay-as-you-go that can deliver speed to value. Not only are traditional technology expenses reduced or eliminated but, more importantly, a cloud insurance platform provides startups:

• The ability to leverage best practices to establish business operations;
• Ready-to-use insurance content to meet basic regulatory needs;
• Support distribution channel flexibility and expansion via a flexible front-end digital platform;
• Operational efficiency and economies of scale;
• Lower total cost of ownership; and
• The ability for capital optimization of business growth.

Most importantly, startups should seek an out-of-the-box, repeatable, scalable cloud platform that supports launch through growth with a partner that assumes single accountability. Selecting a Trusted Partner Startups need a solid partner that understands technology and insurance from a high level — down to the details of products, rules and code. They need a partner with experience to help startups from initiation and launch through growth. They should seek a partner with a focus on innovation through integration of new technology capabilities provided by them or their trusted partners. In today’s world, some system traits become critical attributes. “Ready-to-launch,” “pre-built,” “easily adapted to change” and “plug-and-play” are requirements. For startups, this is crucial, especially to product development launch and growth. From product design to quote, service and claims, an insurance platform must be able to address any or all parts of the insurance value chain. A trusted partner will be knowledgeable about common startup questions such as: “How do we deal with service?”; “How do we approach claims?”; “How do we integrate alternative distribution channels?”; and “How do we ensure effective customer engagement for our products and services?” See also: Innovation — or Just Innovative Thinking?   When growth happens, startups also know how to scale up to meet demand, add capability where needed and continually keep an eye on the rapidly evolving technologies that will make a competitive difference. Involving Your Trusted Partner Early in the Process Insurance startups need early access to industry expertise and experience. Traditionally, established insurance technology partners have a methodical (and sometimes slow) process of learning about a company’s technology history. There is often a great deal of time devoted to coming up to speed on how we do business. Call it a learning curve or relationship building — the partner works at fitting its teams properly into the customer process. A startup insurer has a unique opportunity to capitalize on involving a trusted  partner early, collaborating with the startup to create something new and unique. An experienced partner can bring expertise, best practices, ideas and more to the table. This will give the new startup additional product advantages and superior operational differentiation. This is especially true regarding process automation. Rules-based processes and deep insurance capabilities can be eye-opening to startups that may have never considered the full realm of possibility. An experienced partner thinks 10 steps ahead. The partner knows why certain roads of development are dead-ends and others are preparatory measures to ensure a robust, exciting future. These are the nuggets of knowledge that will give the startup real agility and value as they grow. See also: The Start-Ups That Are Innovating in Life   Finding success in solution shopping, then, is more than finding an out-of-the-box solution. It is more a matter of finding a trusted partner with experience, expertise and a flexible cloud-based platform that can provide a rapid launch with speed to value from initiation and through launch and growth.

If you’re raking ashes in California or ripping out sheetrock and carpets in Louisiana (where I live), you are disaster-wise. We grow through adversity. If you have never lived through a disaster, you are probably – with all due respect – dumb, fat and happy. This article is written with one intent – to make you think about the unthinkable. The more willing you are to consider a worst case, the more likely you’ll be able to deal with it when it occurs. Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, was once asked the secret to his success. He replied, “Good decisions.” He was then asked how he made good decisions. His answer was, “Experience.” When asked for the source of his experience, he said, “Bad decisions.” There is “wisdom in scar tissue,” learning that “souls don’t grow in the sunshine.” We rarely learn anything when we think we know it all! “Talking about bulls is not the same thing as being in the bull ring.” (Spanish Proverb) Reality is the facts. Perception is how we see the facts. These can be worlds apart or very much aligned. Your challenge is to recognize the difference. To change perception, you merely need to look at the facts differently. To change the facts, we must intervene with physical force, money, time, energy, etc. As you consider the scenarios that follow, try to be honest. State the facts (circumstances) and how you would address these right now. Ten questions/scenarios are offered. Answer honestly. If 6 out of 10 answers suggest you're ready, I’d suggest your preparedness is above average. You pass the quiz. Once you complete the process, you will not be better prepared for a disaster but you may be motivated to prepare better. The final exam is completed as you arrive at a safe place following evacuation of your home or your business is restored and operational following a loss. See also: A Real Checklist for Real Disasters   In the movie Patton, the general said, “In the face of war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance.” I believe that true disasters are the same. Your readiness: 1. People – Who are you responsible for and responsible to? If the local nuclear power plant melts down and all must evacuate immediately, who in your circle of responsibility (children, spouse, parents, employees, etc.) must you help? How can you coordinate their escape? Remember that Friday p.m. traffic is a pleasure compared with evacuation of communities that might move at 0 to 10 mph, if at all? 2. Necessities (food, drink, medication, toiletries, etc.) – Do you have a week or more of food at home or your office if you are forced to shelter in place? If the evacuation process takes days, do you have what you need packed in your vehicle? 3. Emotional readiness – Evacuations are never easy. Have you and your spouse or your staff thought through the challenge of dealing with and living through a crisis? If not, should you be thinking through the process and challenges while hoping your plan is never needed. In disasters, proactive is better than reactive. Reason has more benefit than emotion. Both will be part of the process – the ideal is balance. 4. Destination – If you are leaving here, you must get to there. If you are in a herd of evacuees heading west, “west” can be hundreds of miles away. Place and money matter. Knowing these are available makes the process run smoother. If you have a predetermined place where you can establish a safe haven, let everyone know, so you can meet. If you have the resources and can find living and work space for yourself and your family and your team, rent what you can. Place will be at a premium or not available at all in disasters. 5. Transportation – Who needs a ride? Who has a ride? Assume “mass transit” will be “mass chaos.” Understand that gas stations may not be open, so filling up may not be possible. Keep your cars near full – fill up tonight. Don’t plan to do it in the a.m. 6. Communication – Effective communication is most important in disasters whether it is at the evacuation end or the recovery end or somewhere in between. Communication is the negotiation of meaning. iPhones, the internet, the telephone, social media, e-mail, the spoken word, etc. are tools for communication. Often in crisis, many tools for communication do not work are or are not available for days or weeks.  Do you and your family or you and your organizational team have a communications plan to ensure that you can ultimately connect with each other after the worst has occurred? Perhaps have each individual have a list of all needed cell numbers and e-mail addresses and passwords. In the short term, your “e” and “i” tools may not work. Paper still has value.   See also: Realities of Post-Disaster Data Recovery   Identify a person/place miles away that can be the central contact or gathering point for all being forced out because of the disaster. This might be a family member of friend, willing to be called once by each member of your group and capture and share the information necessary to facilitate connection and reunion. 7. Evacuation – Look before you leap: Know your alternatives. What may be the most comfortable route west (or east, north or south) may not be workable in chaos. Bring a map. You may not able to access GPS. Gas, food, rest rooms and a place to sleep make the trip more bearable. Think through your options. Your marketplace and organization: 8. Marketplace and team awareness and readiness – Once the levees break, the neighborhood is on fire or the 24th inch of rain falls, it is too late to prepare your organization, your distributors, suppliers and clients for trouble. Trouble is here. Deal with it. Clients deal with you, and you solicit prospects, based on a value proposition to help them when they need it. Your problems are not their problems. Your needs are not their needs. When the world is working according to plan, doing what you promised or meeting and exceeding expectations is easy. When fires are burning, flood waters rising and the community is evacuating (think New Orleans immediately post-Katrina), it is too late to get prepared or to prepare your clients for troubles ahead. Readiness is differentiation! Tomorrow, plan what is necessary to give your clients and staff access to information needed, even if the world is broken. In the industry's equivalent of the Dark Ages, we would post the names and numbers of carrier claims offices and locations on the agency windows as we evacuated for higher ground. After Katrina and Rita and the collapse of the electrical and e-structure of our world, that approach was still an effective tool. Remember that your website may go down. Electricity may be off for a month. If your cell phones fail, they are only as good as a paper weight. One friend found his sister-in-law’s cellphone (with a different area code) worked after Katrina had shut down his own phones. Whoever communicates best – before, during and after a disaster – wins! 9. Chaos/combat – Remember the chaos in the post-Katrina world in New Orleans. Those agencies and teams that evacuated didn’t leave the chaos behind when they left New Orleans. They had to relocate and build a temporary operation for their own safety and sanity and to serve their clients (who were in yet-to-be-determined places) and deal with their own losses/problems. Many of these folks had lost family members, homes, cars and most of their worldly possessions. They were wanderers – hurting. Nonetheless they had to be there for their clients and their fellow team members. Who they were before the storm may not be who they are after their crisis (loss). The storm changed everything. Some of your best workers may not be able to do what they did in the good times. Others who may have been suspect before become star storm troopers in the chaos. All are human and need support from and to offer support to each other. Bob (a friend and New Orleans agency owner who evacuated to Baton Rouge for many weeks) told me one thing he had never considered before Katrina was the need for a group hug/cry. He said, “Several times a day – we’d stop working and hug each other and have a good cry and then get back to work.” Your systems are robotic; your team is made up of living, breathing, feeling and hurting individuals who can do so much but all have a breaking point. Don’t cross it. 10. Contingencies - Many agencies work like a Swiss watch – a very effective process. Unfortunately, you must build, maintain and sustain a living system. Every day, you’ll discover something new, something different, something you didn’t plan for – you must adapt. As you process and progress, ask yourself and each other: What now? What else? What next? See also: New Regulation After a Disaster: More Harm Than Good? In closing, I’ll flash back to one of the most memorable days in my life. It was October 1962. I was a high school sophomore. The U. S. and Russian navies were facing off over nuclear weapons in Cuba. Coach Blanco was sitting on top his desk. He told us, “Boys, if I get off this desk and crawl under it, you do the same. That means I’ve seen a mushroom cloud.” We had regularly prepared for such disasters with “Atomic Bond Drills” (crawling under our desks). Obviously, such a plan would not work. What is offered here is not a plan that will work, but it is a plan that I hope will get you thinking and acting. Find a better way. Do more than crawl under your desk. Remember, some day soon the “merchant of misery” may visit your town. BE PREPARED!

What is it with InsurTech startups and insurance companies? To any outsider, it’s very clear that InsurTechs and insurers make for very odd bedfellows. InsurTechs are quite ephemeral. They sprout up with the sweet rains of venture capital funding and die as their funding dries up. They are nimble and innovative. They aspire to be the next Google — ready to disrupt the establishment in the best “moon shot” tradition. Insurers, on the other hand, tend to be corporate immortals, often measuring their tenure in centuries. Their processes appear fixed and hidebound, handed down from ages gone by. Their speed of innovation is positively glacial, and their customer proposition has “rock of Gibraltar” stability. Insurers are the very establishment that InsurTechs are seeking to disrupt. Opposites attract — or so they say. The fear of disruption The insurance industry has seen an ever-growing demand for “creativity,” “disruption” and new digital technology since 2013. AXA was one of the first to declare its intent to become a digital insurer. In April 2014, the company established a lab in Silicon Valley and announced its tie-up with Facebook. At the time, everyone in the industry was waiting in trepidation for the market entry of the tech giants such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, Samsung and Apple. The fear was that those companies would sweep away the traditional insurers in an Uber-like tech tsunami. Well, the tide came in, but it was no tsunami. Google breathlessly launched into the motor insurance compare market in March 2015. Just a year later, it unceremoniously departed. The industry heaved a collective sigh of relief because there was little or no impact. Yet the tech giants linger and remain the insurance industry’s boogie man. See also: An Eruption in Disruptive InsurTech?   Follow the money The presence of the tech giants has created a created a rush to fund new InsurTech startups. Many of the leading insurance firms have set up VC funds focused on InsurTech. AXA is, again, one of the more notable in this area, providing funding to the tune of €230 million over the last 18 months. VC funding for InsurTech startups has increased 250% year-on-year, from $750 million in 2014 to $2.65 billion in 2015. For insurers, they get financial rewards and get to be at the forefront of any industry disruption if the technology takes off. But many insurers see the need not only to fund innovation but also to “do” innovation. Hence, we’ve seen a steady stream of insurers around the world establishing innovation labs, collaborative spaces, digital garages and centers for digital disruption. Time will tell if these are fundamental drivers of strategic change or are unmasked as simply “window dressing” for the market. Widening the net The InsurTech “boot camp” is another recent phenomenon that has opened up a wider range of innovative startups to the insurance industry. These camps are a cross between an accelerator program, a beauty pageant and a reality TV talent show. For the small price of some equity and the added incentive of some up-front “pocket money,” the InsurTechs get to rub shoulders and gain insights from industry mentors and leading insurers. These boot camps are quite grueling, as they extend over several months. Competition can be fierce, with the best of the best InsurTech teams pitted against each other. The participants get to hone their solution pitches, demos and financial plans for the gathered insurance brotherhood and their fellow InsurTechs. Yet some InsurTech teams are frustrated by the insurers' lack of urgency and their naïve view of how much effort is really required to make an innovation alliance work. See also: InsurTech Start-Ups: Friends or Foes?  A new hope All of this activity has not been lost on governments wanting to push a “clever economy” strategy, creating sovereign incubators for the development of new or exotic financial services products and business models. The Singapore and U.K. governments are leading exponents of this new way of thinking and have spawned a wave of innovation emulators from Australia to Germany. These innovation-friendly government policies generally encompass a mix of:

• Seed funding for startups;
• Provision of “collaborative” spaces;
• Incentives for the establishment of innovation labs; and
• Regulations fostering the flexibility/tolerance to try new things in public that may fail.

Breaking new ground, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has launched its own innovative boot camp: the Singapore FinTech Festival. It’s a coordinated way to accelerate innovation for the whole financial services industry, drawing on FinTech and InsurTech talent from around the world. Singapore is putting its money where its mouth is, funding a “Hackcelerator” competition as part of the festival. This competition will run 10 weeks, starting in September 2016, and it has more than $500,000 of funding and prizes to be shared — no equity required! All the teams need to do is be in the top-20 at solving at least one of 100 problem statements set by the organizers. In a similar vein, Singapore insurer NTUC Income has announced its own InsurTech accelerator program. It’s offering funding of S$28,000 apiece for 12 top InsurTech startups. Again, no equity required. The program runs from January to March 2017. If this trend continues, boot camps will be out of business — at least in their current, equity-gobbling format. But where are the traditional insurance tech vendors? In all this activity, where are the insurance legacy tech suppliers (LegTechs)? Many of the traditional consulting firms are doing quite well, tying up with some of the boot camps. But those vendors that were selling mainframe systems, software development services and the like, where are they? The answer for the most part is nowhere — the land of digital transformation. Perhaps it’s indicative of the level of mistrust between insurers and their LegTechs that insurers “go direct” to the innovation source. Perhaps it’s the fear that the innovation will too quickly be commoditized by these vendors and spread to insurers’ competitors. Whatever the case, LegTechs are being cut out of the conversation. This is a big mistake. LegTechs are better at partnering. They typically understand the innovation process and have a product mentality, which would really help package what InsurTechs have to offer. There is also an alignment on maximizing profit on technology with a common view of pervasively selling into the market. As a consequence, the LegTechs have a large, well-established, tech-savvy salesforce ready to carry the InsurTechs' message to the market. This is one of the most decisive reasons why InsurTechs should partner with LegTechs. The final reason is that LegTechs are a goldmine of useful resources. They have an army of developers, lab space, sandpit environments, technology centers of excellence and distinguished engineers/architects with decades of experience — all of which would rapidly bring robust InsurTech products to market. See also: InsurTech Boom Is Reshaping Market   For LegTechs, there are also many attractions. Systematic partnering in this way would inject innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit they badly need. InsurTechs would provide an outlet for some of the LegTechs’ brilliant engineers, giving them an opportunity to dabble with the heady challenges of a startup while maintaining their security. This would definitely boost retention and attraction of this scarce talent pool. Finally, the LegTechs could get into new growth areas rather than stagnate on a declining commodity technology business. The bottom line Change is the only constant in an industry fiercely trying to catch lightning in a bottle. The lyrics from the Pokémon song are really quite apt for this current stage: “You teach me, and I teach you,” as I doubt we can “catch ‘em all.” We have a vision but have yet to stumble on the magic formula for repeatable innovative disruption. We hope we’ll find it in InsurTech’s perfect match. Or, perhaps, it has already happened but we just don’t know it. In any case, with boot camps, hackcelerators, insurers, VCs, governments and LegTechs all at hand, our visionary InsurTechs will soon deliver further breakthroughs. Let’s hope their beauty and passion rub off on an old industry. This article originally appeared in InsurTech News.

Earlier, I discussed the implications of the gig economy on the insurance industry. We concluded that the existence of "crowdworkers" in the gig economy creates four main opportunities for insurers: a faster flow of information, claim process efficiencies, information customization and cost efficiencies. We at WeGoLook believe all industries must take notice of the disruptive gig economy to remain smart and streamlined, adapting to consumer needs. What I want to do today is focus on the traditional finance industry, which includes insurance, and the new disruptive trend in fintech. When you combine two major disruptive shifts (fintech and the gig economy) the results are game-changing. The Fintech Disruption: The picture we can already see Fintech is an umbrella term for an array of new financial sector services that were once monopolized by large financial institutions. This is a good thing. The change is forcing traditional banks to adapt and may even keep those pesky banking fees to a minimum! Goldman Sachs predicts these fintech startups will capture as much as $4.7 trillion in annual revenue from traditional financial companies and $470 billion in profit. These fintech companies include budgeting platforms such as Mint and Acorns, automated investing services such as Betterment or lending services such as Lending Club, OnDeck and Kabbage. What these companies are accomplishing is the decentralization and democratization of financial services like loans, banking and investing. These fintech companies are making traditional services more accessible to consumers. Remember, the gig economy — or what some people term the “sharing economy” — is all about access. See also: ‘Gig Economy’ Comes to Claims Handling   In 2015, the Economist declared fintech to be a “revolution” of the finance industry, and Time Magazine stated banks should be “afraid” of fintech. The Role of the Gig Economy in Fintech: Flexible workforces In the gig economy, intermediaries disappear. But don't ask me — ask your local taxi owner, hotelier or car rental agency if Uber, Airbnb or Turo have affected their way of doing business. This is a rhetorical question; of course there's been an effect. This is a good thing, but how we react will define our businesses in the years to come. When discussing what fintech means for the traditional finance industry, Barry Ritholtz, a Bloomberg columnist, aptly said: “What is much more interesting to me is how the traditional money-management industry will respond to and adopt the latest technologies for helping it operate more efficiently and with greater client satisfaction.” This flexibility is something most industries, including the financial sector, have yet to fully embrace. There are a number of gig economy companies out there that have access to thousands of on-demand workers who can perform a number of tasks that were traditionally in the wheelhouse of full-time employees. Why would an insurance company or other large financial institution have tens of thousands of employees across the country to verify assets when they can leverage a stable of trained, vetted and professional gig workers? This is the gig economy, where people with spare time are self-identified as willing to complete on-the-ground tasks in their location. See also: The Gig Economy Is Alive and Growing   Gig economy companies aren't just a vendor service — they can be part of the process. Need we get into the amount of money this can save a company? Let's dive into a specific sector of fintech — online lending — as a case study of how the gig economy can enable and complement the lending process. Gig Economy Case Study: A flexible workforce and online lending Online lending, including peer-to-peer lending, is an old concept reinvented for a digital age. Entrepreneurs, business people and citizens have always borrowed and lent money, but only in recent history has that become much more sophisticated and accessible through online marketplaces and fintech services. Foundation Capital predicts that more than $1 trillion in loans is expected to have originated through these new lending marketplaces by 2025. Let that number sink in for a second. Indeed, fintech has enabled a safe lending environment between people and businesses through innovative screening and credit checking. Investors and businesses of all stripes can now lend and borrow through internet platforms without traditional bank applications or even the need to physically exchange documents. In most of these cases, however, asset or document verification are still requirements. Take, for instance, common financial loan transactions, such as vehicle financing or refinancing, property financing and business loans. All these transactions require some form of physical verification that an asset exists and is “as described.” Whether that is a car, property, business or some other assets, someone needs to fulfill lending requirements. Gig economy companies such as mine, WeGoLook, have access to thousands of workers across the U.S. who are ready and trained to travel to a specific destination to complete asset verification tasks. The Gig Worker Landscape: What that means for fintech Technology allows us to direct our "lookers" to capture the correct on-site data and perform tasks in a consistent manner across the U.S. (and now in Canada, the U.K. and Australia). The benefits of this gig model are numerous, and a looker, or gig economy worker, can now:

• Replace multiple vendors;
• Augment or supplement employees in the field;
• Augment, supplement or replace employees dispatched from a bank to verify assets or perform a task;
• Provide faster task completion at a lower cost; and
• Capture and store all data in the same place and format.

For an example of a real estate report we provide to many of our banking clients, click here. Because of the flexibility inherent in gig work, there is a significant increase in flow of information to clients. For instance, companies like mine can provide an electronic “live” report, which allows clients to review photos and information prior to receiving a traditional report. There is also the ability to support video, enabling a walk-through of a property, a demonstration of a piece of equipment in operation — and much more. This walk-through can also be done live with the client, if needed. In the past, a customer would need to bring documents to a bank and work face-to-face with a branch employee for notarization and paperwork completion. This is no longer the case. Gig employees can now immediately travel to the customer's home or place of business. The gig worker can take photos of the asset, deliver documents, notarize originals, deliver them to a shipper and submit all relevant information via an electronic report. This allows the bank to view all information and verify all documents are properly signed. The bank can then fund a customer before the FedEx or UPS package of original documents arrives. See also: On-Demand Economy Is Just Starting All this flexibility allows for faster turnaround times, the elimination of multiple vendors and a reduction in lag time waiting on a customer to try to get to the bank during business hours. In the end, what we have is a smarter and faster process, which is important, particularly when a loan rate guarantee is in place. Changing entire industries takes time, but the gig economy and fintech are rapidly altering the landscape of the traditional finance industry. As discussed, all three of these industries aren't mutually exclusive. Traditional financial services can embrace the better use of technology through fintech and greater efficiency through the gig economy.

Loic Le Meur, who many will know from Le Web Conference and his new startup, Leade.rs,, had a great interview with Alex Dayon, the president and chief product officer at salesforce.com, about how owning a car is almost obsolete. It got me thinking about our shift to utility-based living and what it means for insurance. In a land where an Englishman's home is his castle, the car is often seen as the next most expensive asset a person will purchase, so the move away from ownership is great.  And the car is just the start. Now, start to add bundles such as insurance, maintenance and fuel. These sorts of schemes give the best of both worlds because you get to choose what model you try. Do you want a weekend utility, something bigger for holidays away or something smaller for whizzing around town? These new levels of flexibility will absolutely become the norm. See also: Connected Vehicles Can Improve Claims   Many of us are used to utility today — prestige car hire, AirBnB, vacation rentals, handbags, pets and so much more! The sharing economy is continuously expanding. The key changes here for me are the added convenience because of technology (think about calling a taxi 10 years ago vs. calling one today with an app) and then business models that have changed to deliver micro experiences. Cuvva is doing the same in insurance with policies available by the hour. While that's a brilliant idea, I'd almost argue we can get too granular sometimes. We need to be clear on what the pivot point is — it's just different for different people in different circumstances. If you have ever been to IKEA or something like it, you often find vans in the parking lot that you can rent for an hour because you have bought more than your car can hold. See also: Beat Brain Drain: Boost Your Talent Pool   These sorts of schemes change the entire competitive landscape. The winners here will be those companies that provide frictionless experiences that are both relevant and convenient. Of course, frictionless won’t be for everyone. Your choice will depend greatly on where you live (inner city, suburbs or rural areas). Some look at moving away from ownership as another bastion of losing control. That said, think about how many more hours a day you'd get back to do enjoyable or more meaningful stuff. Time is the most precious entity — period. This is the new generation; experiences far outweigh things, which, coincidentally, makes us all happier, too! As the old saying from John Paul Getty goes, “If it appreciates, own it. If it depreciates, rent it!” As we move further and further in this newly accepted world, insurance will form part of the experience bundle, whether you knew it was there or not. The important thing is being reassured you have it and that you have it at the right level. As I picked up a rental car in Dublin Airport, I got a hard sell about reducing the €1,500 standard excess with better insurance for just €20 per day. While I understand why companies do this, it kind of makes me sad and gives insurance a bad name. How many take out this extra cover? Now is the time for carriers to focus on the partnership opportunities that come with renting and to come up with better approaches. No matter what, I’m looking forward to trying lots of different cars without the hassle of owning any through new apps and business models that allow me to try things I would never be able to own.