Great read from Oliver Ralph on the move to being a services business.
We have talked abut this for a while and how Insurance ultimately becomes a by-product for the insurance company - yet they focus on the value added services around this.
One of the most common examples here is through the use of IoT and how home monitoring may be the primary acquisition with Insurance being the by product.
The same could be said for Telematics to give insight into driving behaviour, although there is a more natural and direct relationship here for obvious reasons, unless further services are built into the driving package.
I wouldn't necessarily call this an identity crisis, more recognition of being where the customer is and identifying what they need. So perhaps merely a question of chicken and egg? What comes first?
Insurance companies have always faced a persistent and intractable problem: their customers do not like them very much. It is the natural consequence of a relationship that only sparks into life when something unpleasant happens. So some in the industry have come up with a solution to the problem: stop being conventional insurance companies. Be “services” groups instead and offer something well beyond the traditional mailing of a cheque to compensate for that holiday that was not all it was promised, fix a dented car bumper or repair a burst water pipe.
https://www.ft.com/content/2916c128-918d-11e8-b639-7680cedcc421
