From Digital Transformations to Online Acceleration!

For a while we have been talking about the digital transformation of industries and Insurance has not been an exception. Whether through terms like "Insurtech" or "Digital", our industry started some 4 years ago a journey in which many incumbents, large and small, international or local, have been involved to different degrees of engagement in those transformations. From testing with small projects to fully involved with marathon-long transformations involving replacing CORE systems and aiming at efficiency programs throughout the organization.

All involved in these changes have been brave and their efforts are commendable but with the impact of COVID-19 those involved as well as those not so involved have been hit with the same reality check questions: Is my transformation progressing fast enough? Are the things being transformed just getting me more "Tech" and not enough business "Depth"? How fast can I leverage the changes introduced by this pandemic in terms of online consumer behavior? These are the questions no transformation leader wants to be stuck answering with words or phrases like "not fast enough..." or "a shiny new kit..." or "it will take a while...".

Hence the title of this short article. If you have been in the marathon a digital transformation tends to be, it is time to accelerate the pace. If you have not started yet, you may want to consider starting a 10k race instead, with specific support of a community of experts that know how to drive online solutions an innovate better and faster. This is no time to "think" about it, it is time for "action" and whomever accelerates now can have the short and medium term benefit of the new world we are moving fast into.

As per the dialogue from Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel, The Sun Also Rises, businesses now need to operate on the urgency of “Gradually and then suddenly.”