Six Things 6.4.24
Insurance Thought Leadership
Transforming the Insurance Industry - Welcome to the Conversation
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What Innovation Actually Looks Like
Paul Carroll, Editor-in-Chief of ITL
Back in the days before the Wall Street Journal used photographs, the publisher was once asked for the reason. "If we don't use photographs," he said, "we don't have to deal with photographers."
I sometimes think the reason there isn't more innovation — and not just in the insurance industry — is that it's a pain to deal with true innovators. True innovators are disruptive. They can be abrupt, even rude, because they're often mad about something they want to fix and they're in a hurry. They aren't always right — but good luck telling them that. And did I mention that they're disruptive? Once they nail the big idea, they force an awful lot of people to change an awful lot of things that they've done comfortably for a long time.
People often tell me they'd like to write a book. I tell them they're wrong. Writing a book is really hard. People don't actually want to?write?a book. They want to?have written?a book.?
I'd say that's true of most companies. They don't want to innovate. They want to?have innovated.
That's a long way of saying that Gordon Bell, a computing pioneer I had the privilege of knowing and occasionally working with over the past 35-plus years, died recently. Though known primarily as the father of the minicomputer, Gordon was a profound innovator who had a sweeping effect on the progress of computing over the past 60 years, and I'd like to tell you a bit about him.
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