How to build a ‘pro-adaptive’ strategy
A ‘pro-adaptability’ mindset and its relevance within the insurance industry cannot be ignored. In this rapidly growing, evolving and competitive marketplace, the smart insurer knows it requires a laser-focus on the levers of change and innovation if it is to positively influence its own fortunes.
Gavin Peters, Genasys’ Chief Marketing Officer, explains why insurers need to put adaptability at the heart of business strategies, looking at how to embed the ‘pro-adaptability’ state of mind to secure commercial success.
More than perhaps any other time in recent history, the last few years have demonstrated just how difficult it is to predict changes in customer needs. Whether due to technological, economic, environmental or other cultural changes, customer requirements are continually evolving and every so often they will make a rapid, unexpected shift.
For the modern insurance business to truly remain customer-centric, it’s no longer enough to plan for an expected medium-to-long term future based on what we know, or predict what will happen. The battle for meeting customer needs most effectively will be won by those who are most able to react fast – and well – when things inevitably change. To achieve this, the idea of adaptability is front and centre of any modernisation strategy.
Creating a pro-adaptive strategy
Being truly agile (and able to react quickly) requires more than just putting more emphasis on speed, or an openness to being flexible as things change. It takes a fundamental strategic shift towards making adaptability a core business goal, and implementing the leadership, culture, processes and technology changes required to ensure that your business is set up to adapt.
Rather than waiting for the next big event and reacting as fast as possible, it’s a business approach that proactively focuses on adaptability as a core business strategy.
Pro-adaptability means clearly and systematically organising a business to be able to react quickly and efficiently to external factors, without disrupting the overall operations. It puts adaptability at the heart of its modernisation programme, rather than fixing a strategy around a single current or expected future landscape.
The four pillars of pro-adaptability
A pro-adaptive strategy requires a laser-focus on organising the entire business around instant reaction to change, without derailing the overall vision or negatively impacting core-operations.
We’ve highlighted four key pillars that need to be addressed in a pro-adaptive strategy, and what will be required for a modern insurance business.
Leadership
Embrace the long and winding road
Being pro-adaptive and building adaptability into the ethos of an organisation requires clear strategic direction and communication led from the very top. Leaders must inspire teams with both a clear long-term vision and a recognition that things will change. Short-term plans may be replaced along the way, reminding us that flexibility is a competitive advantage.
That clear, unambiguous focus on becoming truly flexible – and ensuring that flexibility is part of the long-term strategy to achieve the vision – is ultimately what will define a pro-adaptive approach.
Focusing on adaptability doesn’t mean ignoring predictions for the future. On the contrary, horizon scanning is an absolutely crucial element for leaders of an adaptable organisation. Leaders must be focused on the long-term, continually assessing the landscape and driving innovation. But rather than fixing the business on one or two predictions, leadership’s role is to ensure that the business is ready to capitalise on what’s expected to happen, whilst being able to react with genuine agility if and when things change.
Constant, open communication across the entire business is crucial. At every level, the organisation must understand the reasons behind any particular change taking place, and see how change is positive.
Culture
Prioritise openness and understanding
Ultimately, a pro-adaptive strategy can only succeed if the skills and mindsets of the people behind the product reflect a focus on innovation and flexibility. One of the biggest blockers to adaptability is internal frustration as a result of a team feeling that plans keep changing, harvesting a sense that previous efforts have been wasted.
A pro-adaptive culture must be harboured to remove this misconception. Things do change, and a competitive advantage is borne out of reacting to that change without derailing the overall company vision.
Recruitment should focus on adaptable personalities – those who prove themselves open to change and embracing new ideas. Training and team building must continually encourage flexibility, great communication and importantly, empathy. Asking and understanding why requirements from others might vary, rather than allowing frustration to develop, is a vital skill set.
Process
Maximise agility
A pro-adaptive strategy needs to proactively put the systems, architecture and processes in place to maximise agility and empower teams to innovate.
A composable business architecture may be put in place: ensuring everything is planned with a modular strucugre, with teams set-up as ‘building blocks’ around particular products or services that work collaboratively, yet autonomously. So, as things change, blocks can be added to, or removed (and repurposed) without derailing other processes.
Communications must be regular and open. If it isn’t already happening, regular all-hands meetings should be implemented, with a clear focus on explaining how and why things are changing.
Systems based around modern technology should be built to automate processes and remove inefficiencies. This improves the organisation’s ability to move fast and react quickly. Whilst a pro-adaptive strategy needs a clear, targeted initial programme in place to update out-of-date processes, it should never end. Continuous ‘adaptability’ reviews should be carried out to assess speed and flexibility, and highlight scope for improvement.
Technology
Enable a digital evolution
Modern, cloud-based software solutions – built for interoperability with other software – are crucial in enabling a business to reach high levels of adaptability. A pro-adaptive strategy may necessitate an overhaul of inflexible legacy technology. This is not always a simple task, but highlights why building for adaptability first is fundamental.
Prioritising flexibility (rather than fixing technology around a specific use-case) will result in avoiding repeated ‘digital transformation’ programmes. Getting a pro-adaptive strategy in place will then allow an ongoing ‘digital evolution’ as the technology evolves with the business.
Adaptive technology relies on open, high-quality, APIs build into that software, as well as easy-to-manage, no-code tools, so anyone in the business can manage things quickly and efficiently. As an example, a modern insurance management core platform should enable plug-and-play flexibility, where new technologies can be plugged in (and unplugged when necessary) without having to switch everything off at the mains and complete a whole programme reset.
Pro-adaptability – reaping the commercial rewards
Getting a pro-adaptive strategy right requires hard work, and often a total rethink of many existing and long-held processes and company norms. But the benefits for the comapneis who fully embrace it will be immense. These organisations will be at the forefront of innovation: ready to react rapidly to changing market conditions, launch new products quickly, better target younger demographics, improve customer loyalty, and possess a deep understanding of their customer needs.
As they react, they will quickly learn what works, and compound their competitive advantage through innovation. For those leading the charge on adaptability, the opportunity to build leading businesses in a rapidly changing world exists now.
