Skip to main content

The Latest Gartner Insurance Research for Pioneers and Disruptors

Appian Contributor
February 22, 2019

Gartner's recent report,Insurance 2030 Scenarios Update: CIOs Need Greater Adaptability to Survive and Thrive in an Era of Ongoing Industry Transformation, is a forward-looking roadmap for insurance business and IT leaders facing an era of increasingly unpredictable and highly challenging operating conditions.

Gartner has identified four different scenarios for business transformation that insurers should consider as part of their long-term planning, and has compiled a scenario planning document as a roadmap for CIOs. These scenarios take into account both corporate culture Traditionalists versus Futurists and market volatility from low to high. The Traditionalists are Administrators and Adapters, and the Futurists are Pioneers and Disruptors.

In my last post, I focused on the characteristics of the Traditionalists, looking at how external forces could impact a corporate culture that is slower-moving and more risk-averse with respect to both technology adoption and business models.

This week, we'll dive a bit deeper into the Futurists, and again touch on what could change by 2030.

Proactive Pioneers and Transformative Disruptors

The Futurist corporate culture is collaborative and creative, with decentralized decision-making and a learn-fast and fail-fast mindset.

The Pioneer scenario develops in low-volatility market environments when innovative CIOs proactively address changing customer expectations. For these insurers, their willingness to adopt new technologies like digital platforms will be a strategic enabler. And because of their incremental approach to technology adoption, willingness to leverage partnerships, and ability to quantify success through measurable key performance indicators (KPIs), they'll position themselves to be successful.

2030 Snapshot: Although market conditions are favorable for Pioneers, their innovation vision must go beyond using emerging technologies simply as a platform for distribution. Additionally, they need to maintain focus on how the technologies that they adopt will fit into their technology ecosystem both now and in the future.

Disruptors are operating in a more volatile market environment than Pioneers, with a corporate culture that is agile, entrepreneurial, and even more aggressive than their Pioneer counterparts. Insurers in this scenario are not afraid to challenge the status quo with respect to technologies or business services. In many cases, these disruptors will not be brand-new companies, but will be funded in an incubator setting by traditional companies, or by entrants from other markets.

2030 Snapshot:Successful Disruptors are the ones that will view the continued cultural and lifestyle changes along with new technologies as opportunities to capture market share, capitalizing on innovation that will make the customer experience seamless.

Address a Radically Changing Ecosystem and Competitive Environment

Insurers today face a complex, fast-changing array of challenges, and how they react to these challenges and changes will impact the way they develop and offer their products and services, and possibly even their business models. Insurers should use these scenarios as way to think about agility, and how they can improve the resilience of their organizations and increase competitive advantage.

Eileen Potter

Insurance Industry Marketing Manager