Unlikely Icon for Insurers

As I continue to think about how the insurance industry can focus on — and brag about — its noble purpose, I’ve come across an unlikely model: Best Buy.

The company was given up for dead in 2012. But a new CEO rallied the company around a clear, worthwhile purpose — to enhance people’s lives through electronics — and got away from the emphasis on just moving as much product as possible out the door (preferably items on which Best Buy received incentive payments from manufacturers).

Best Buy not only served its customers better but won over employees, whose knowledge and passion about electronics could now shine through. Best Buy became a growth story again — as profits soared, so did the stock price, from $12 in 2012 to $114 today. The CEO who effected the turnaround recently published a book that is getting considerable attention, and Best Buy is getting great publicity in business books and other publications as an exemplar of the power of purpose.

Purpose, profit and publicity: Doesn’t that sound like a model that insurers should try to emulate?

continue reading >