Forestview Insights’ founder and CEO, Rob Galbraith, discusses the importance of market openness.
The CEO and founder of Forestview Insights, Rob Galbraith, has worked closely with insurance firms for many years, pushing them to innovate and questioning the current quo. Over this time, he has observed the deeply rooted characteristics of insurance companies, which have benefited from decades of comparatively stable conditions, unaffected by the kinds of disruptive pressures that other sectors of the economy, such as the media or technology, have encountered.
“You don’t have that kind of Netflix-type startup that comes in and over a decade kind of becomes the market leader while everybody else tries to catch up,” says Galbraith.
The insurance sector is particularly resistant to fast change because of its stability. Because of this, businesses frequently find it difficult to adjust to the new circumstances of a rapidly changing business environment.
“You have such ingrained processes and organisation because you have such stability,” he argues, highlighting how challenging it is to promote a culture of change.
According to Galbraith, “it is very difficult for organisations to move quickly” unless there is an obvious and immediate threat. This is a major obstacle to promoting change within the insurance industry. Innovation necessitates not only fresh concepts but also a mentality shift that affects the entire organisation, which big, established insurance companies find difficult to adopt.
However, there has been a discernible change in the last five years. “There’s a lot more transparency, quite frankly, in the insurance market than there was before,” he stated.
Businesses are starting to be transparent about their innovation processes and areas of focus.
“We see this at the plethora of conferences that have grown up,” says Galbraith.
FOMO-driven innovation
According to Galbraith, outside pressures and the emergence of insuretechs are among of the factors that are driving this change. He informs IB that “innovation has become a criterion in the assessments of insurance businesses by vendors, consultancies, benchmarking groups, rating agencies, and regulators. This outside pressure has led to what he called a little “FOMO” in the sector, pushing businesses to take action even when they are unsure of the best course of action.
Teaching these businesses about innovation as a discipline has become a bigger part of Galbraith’s job description.
“What I come in to preach is really the idea that innovation is a discipline no different than claims, no different than underwriting, no different than actuarial science,” he states.
The innovation field is still largely unexplored, in contrast to underwriting or claims, which have established best practices and professional qualifications.
Galbraith describes it as “kind of like the wild, wild west.” He clarified that many insurance companies are still in the early stages of implementing innovation. “There hasn’t been a lot of best practices, and those are just starting to build up now.”
‘It’s that muddy middle that a lot of organizations don’t really understand’
Galbraith stresses the necessity for businesses to move away from the fragmented approach many have historically followed as they struggle with the changing market.
“In the past, I’ve seen pet projects where the chief claims officer has some projects, the chief underwriting officer has theirs, and these innovation efforts may not tie back to the strategic objectives,” he continues.
“We think of innovation simply as the ideation phase,” he adds, but the true difficulty is in what he refers to as “the muddy middle,” or the sometimes disregarded phases that separate developing a concept from putting it into practice.
“It’s that muddy middle that a lot of organizations don’t really understand.” The importance of having a clear process for innovation cannot be overstated, according to Galbraith.
“How do you go from ideation to implementation? What is your process?” These are the questions he encourages companies to ask themselves. In his experience, it’s not the lack of good ideas that holds companies back, but their inability to manage the process effectively.
“How do you decide which ideas to pursue, and how do you quantify and evaluate as you move through the process?” he says.
Another key problem is determining when to abandon failing projects.
“You need to be able to end projects midstream and pursue others that are more fruitful,” according to Galbraith. Without this skill, businesses risk becoming bogged down in projects that may not yield the expected results.
