COMMENTARY
Why
Insurers
Will Miss
Steve Jobs
It’s unfortunate that death Is often an
event that causes others to become more alive. In this
case, the passing of steve Jobs brings to light his extraordinary accomplishments in the technology world;
accomplishments that will offer insurers opportunities
to be better at what they do for years to come.
Known for his curiosity and intuition, Jobs was
more than a visionary—he got us to think differently
about complex, technical concepts and processes,
predicting succinctly what consumers would appreciate and find useful. and what consumers found
useful was the power to compute, communicate, collaborate, transact business, appreciate music and film
and more—and to do so on their own terms. In other words, he brought the customer to the forefront,
which forced insurers to respond to their demands.
his vision created in consumers a desire to consider
technology as a conduit to better living. In so doing, he
inadvertently nudged the insurance industry beyond
its reputation as being technologically hidebound and
into an era where customer-centrism is king.
More importantly, Jobs’ goal in delivering innovations
was to keep it “personal” for the user, putting the user
in control of how they learned about the world and empowering them to actively use that power to change it.
By raising awareness of the power of the customer,
Jobs built technology that continued to anticipate and
respond to a growing consumer demand for technological simplicity. for insurers, this played forward
into the “ease of doing business” philosophy, creating opportunities for competitive advantage to those
forward-thinking carriers that saw this as their new
customer service calling card (see asked & answered,
page 19). today, carriers fiercely compete down the
channel, using a variety of devices to create ease-of-use in billing and payments transaction processing,
customer service, claims handling and more with
their agents, brokers, business partners and with policyholders alike.
It also plays forward into touching the customer
with applications running on mobile devices such
as smartphones and tablets, born of apple and now
in play with a number of other companies. With no
discernible downside to these apps, insurers are be-
coming experts in soft-sell techniques by educating,
branding and engaging their customers via those cus-
tomers’ preferences. In the words of tom Petty, “the
future is wide open.”
What else can we learn from Jobs? his ability to
simplify complex, highly engineered products in many
regards is not unlike the insurance industry’s need to
make coverage explainable to the policyholder. Insur-
ers have an opportunity in his passing to rethink how
technology can “keep it simple” for the policyholder.
steve Jobs’ legacy will continue to live on, having
made the entire insurance industry better at appreciating technology for what it is: an enabler to improve
the way we conduct business.
Pat speer
editor-in-Chief
550 W. Van Buren st., ste. 1110, Chicago, IL 60607
fax: 312-566-0656
email: firstname.lastname@sourcemedia.com
EDITORIAL
Editor-in-Chief Patricia Speer 312.777.1376
Editor Carrie Burns 312.777.1366
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BUSINESS
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BOARD OF ADVISERS
Eric Bulis, EVP of Operations and CIO, SBLI USA Mutual Life
Andy Edwardson, CIO, VP of IT, Farmers Alliance Mutual Insurance Co.
Ursuline Foley, SVP and CIO, XLRe at XL Capital
Dick Mucci, Chairman and CEO of New York Life International
Dennis Mehmen, CIO, VP, Business Information Services,
Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Co.
Anthony Sisti, Information Systems Director, Travelers
CORPORATE
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