“The short-term vision.” This is the main challenge faced by those who want to make and bring innovation to large insurance companies: Pietro Menghi, now CEO of the Neosurance startup after 30 years of international experience in the insurance and reinsurance sector, said so. In addition, there is still too much time to bring innovative projects and products to the market in an effective and efficient manner.
That’s why Menghi, at his 50, decided to “get out” and then come back again to boost from outside the big companies proposing algorithms and big data to create a smart link towards those who are part of digital communities, mainly when on the move.
His dream is still insurance: “An industry that by design should aim at customer satisfaction. Many are trying to redefine the model and these efforts must be appreciated and supported. It’s a huge issue, not just technological but even strategic, since it brings us back to the origins of the insurance industry, to the very concept of a community in need of protection. Nowadays, such protection can be guaranteed by offering answers almost on an individual level, thus reversing the product-centric logic prevailing until now.
Menghi is not only nostalgic for the industry where he raised and grew up professionally. It is a sign of a smart approach being widely used among many startups: not all of them can bring disruption until becoming a threat to the incumbents. Most of them are not interested in “tearing down the system” but rather in changing it, bringing the revolution into the consolidated companies that still have a lot to offer, to do and important assets to invest. Many incumbents are grasping it and no longer look to startups as a threat.
“The lack of some innovative services in its offer has not reduced user confidence”, said Filippo Renga, Director of the Fintech & Insurtech Osservatorio, about banks and postal services he has recently surveyed. This remark can be extended to all financial services, including insurance ones having something more and different to offer: these services are an integral part of the life and well-being of each of us and do not merely focus on portfolio issues.
There is therefore still a capital of brand recognition and trust that the leading players in the financial market can and must invest in innovation. However, they need to do so quickly. “Confidence is much more tangible in customers over 55, while it drops by several points in young people under 25”, Renga noted. They demand 24-hour availability, transparency, speed in replying. There is no longer much time to provide reliable, tangible answers for new customers. We are talking a lot about Millennial, but soon they will also get through and a new generation, even more digital and demanding, will arrive.
A strategic vision is therefore needed to avoid being overwhelmed by startups that, in many cases, are not going to overpower, but would like to be part of the change of a large company willing to look at technologies as an opportunity to think about the future and customers, beyond the next quarter.
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