Brushing Back The Tide

on Aug 30 by Barry Rabkin
Tags: change, technology
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Back in 1996/1997, I delivered a presentation as a META Group analyst to a room full of insurance business and IT people.  The occasion was META’s annual conference – Metamorphosis (you’ve got to love the name) – and the theme of my presentation was the current and impending impact of the Internet on the insurance industry.

During the Q & A, one of the attendees from the insurance industry asked me ‘if there were any ways we could we stop it?’ I asked ’stop what?’ He replied ’stop the Internet from impacting the insurance industry.’ I was taken aback for a few seconds… and then replied ” well yes, but first we need to get some brooms and stop the ocean from hitting the beach.”

Why is our industry so afraid of change? Why can’t we see that we need to leverage current and emerging technologies to build or strengthen our competitive advantage?