Prisoner of Our Own Experiences

on Oct 02 by Barry Rabkin
Tags: improvements, Innovation
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Back in 1973, my wife and I went to see American Graffiti. You might remember it was about hamburger joints, car-hops, cruising … all the fun stuff that she and I had enjoyed as teenagers. Even though we were from different parts of the country (my wife is from the Midwest – Kansas City, Missouri and I’m from one of the Boston MetroWest suburbs) we thoroughly enjoyed watching the movie and connecting with it.

At that time, I was working at The Hartford and one of my close friends who worked with me came from New York City. He and his girlfriend went to see the movie with us. As we walked outside afterwards, he said that was a fun movie but how could anyone come up with all of that ‘fiction.’ My wife and I just stared at him dumbfounded: fiction we asked? That was real, that is how we grew up, nothing about the basic tenets of American Graffiti was fiction.

He laughed at us. He couldn’t believe how we so closely identified with the movie. We asked him where he took his dates on Saturday night: night court, he answered without missing a heart-beat. And again my wife and I were dumbfounded. Night court?! Who takes a date to night court?

We are all prisoners of our own experiences. Those experiences shape us, inform us and act as signposts as we move through life. We have to remember that our experiences are not universal. More importantly, we have to look outside our experiences if we are to improve ourselves and more on point to my blog, improve how insurance business is transacted.

Improvements are far more than streamlining operations or speeding up transactions. Improvements include using current and emerging technologies to develop products that prospective policyholders and producers expect, deliver those products and services using technologies that may not be part of our experiences, and strive (and probably struggle) to keep up with an ever-changing environment and marketplace.

Without getting out of our prisons of past experiences, we’ll never find that mysterious but beautiful blond in the Thunderbird.

Playing or Changing the Game?

on Sep 16 by Barry Rabkin
Tags: eInsurance Symposium, Innovation
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More thoughts from the 2009 eInsurance Symposium…

Are you as a technology firm supporting the insurance industry – or whatever industry you support – playing the game just like your competitors or are you changing the game?

Playing the game, doing something the same as your competitors – albeit supposedly cheaper, faster, with more up-to-date technologies – or some combination is a holding action. Sure, you might pick up some market share here and there but you’re really just one of the herd. Nothing exciting and worst, no reason to think your firm really has a very long term competitive advantage.

But if you are changing the game … by hoping to change the rules of the game then it is quite possible you will create a longer-term competitive advantage.

Why bring this up?

Walking the floor of exhibitors at the 2009 eInsurance Symposium – it was a short walk because there were maybe a dozen exhibitors – only one exhibitor is truly trying to change the rules of the game: FirstBest.

Why?

You can click over to the FirstBest web site here but summing up they decided not to play in the “improving downloads or uploads” spaces. FirstBest realized insurers and agencies needed a shared platform to collaborate and accelerate business acquisition. Asynchronous communication is yesterday’s game; leveraging Web 2.0 enabling agents (or CSRs) and underwriters in the home office to see and work on exactly the same information at the same time is tomorrow’s game.

Are they wrong? Are they too far in front? What do you think FirstBest’s odds are of creating a competitive advantage?