Hello everybody! I have Bryan here with
me today and we're going to be talking
about
innovation and insurance and kind of the
future of innovation
so with that when as we get started
Bryan would you mind giving everybody an
introduction?
Yeah, so hello! I'm Bryan Falchuk. I was in
P&C for 20 years
and my last role is running claims for a
carrier in the US
and then I made a switch and went to the
insurtech side and got to see
what it's like being in a tech startup
and serving the insurance companies
rather than working inside of one,
and I put those two perspectives
together in the work that I do today
consulting for carriers and
service providers and startups to try to
help us all move forward and
in my new book "The Future of Insurance
from Disruption to Evolution"
that talks about a situation we're all
facing in this industry.
Perfect so going right off of that last
bit of your introduction talking
specifically about your book
"The Future of Insurance
from Disruption
to Evolution"
can you talk a little bit about some of
the concepts that you explore in that
book?
Yeah, so the the premise of it and it's
told through the stories
of seven different carriers who were
really open and honest
in sharing their stories so there's case
studies of things that they did
but it's this moment that we find
ourselves in as an industry where
on the one side you have customers who
really
expect and I'd say even demand a
different way of working and especially
right now
you know I started the book before the
coronavirus pandemic hit and so all of a
sudden now we have to digitize and we
have to do things remotely and
a lot of the ways that we're used to
working it's not just they were
cumbersome for customers they're
impossible today or maybe the service
providers can't operate that way
anyway anymore so we have to figure out
new solutions so we've got customers
really pushing us to serve them
differently than we always have
and we also have a new crop of startup
carriers who are tech enabled tech first
who are not really encumbered by some of
the same things including mindset so
they come at the insurance question with
a different perspective and approach and
they're doing things in serving those
customers differently
in ways that not only meet customer
expectations but maybe
maybe are helping to define a new set of
expectations
and for those of us in the legacy
incumbent carrier side which is the
space I came from
we often feel like we're encumbered and
we're
handcuffed sort of in responding to
those customer demands
and those competitive pressures to meet
them because of
culture and politics and legacy systems
and regulation
and you know all these other things that
are excuses on the one hand but also
very real
on the other so how do we navigate
through
those constraints to meet what's going
on in the marketplace and becoming
expected of us
and you know that's that's kind of the
theme of the book and that's what these
stories are meant to do
is well let me see how that theme that
issue played out for this carrier who
is kind of like us and you know is
facing the same or maybe
more or slightly different constraints
than we face and maybe I'll learn
something in their experience that tells
me oh okay
they broke through because they did xyz
maybe that can help us
so it's sort of a, I've also written a
bunch of self-help books it's kind of a
self-help book just
the self as an insurance company.
There you go!
You mentioned the idea of mindset and
maybe some of
the cultural impacts that that might
have within
the carrier space. Can you talk a
little bit about how
maybe the wrong mindset or perspective
is a hindrance to innovation?
Yeah and I think there's a few things that drive
this but one of them and I think
everyone who works in the industry can
picture this moment where
you know you're meeting a group of
people or maybe you're out at a bar and
someone asks you what you do
and you have this like "Oh no, I have to
say I work in insurance" and they're
going to be like "Oh great"
and try to walk away. That was my job
like we have all made this joke like my
joke was I met my wife when I was
unemployed because that's more
interesting than "Hi, I'm Bryan and I work
at an insurance company"
but this is part of the problem is the
reality is
the industry is actually pretty
interesting pretty amazing and there's
lots you can do and it enables so much
in life it enables people to own homes
and start businesses
and build things without having to worry
about what happens if something goes
wrong
like that's actually a great thing. You
know it may not be neuroscience and we
may not be building rocket ships to go
to the moon or saving lives in a lot of
people's minds
but we're enabling so much and so this
notion that it's a joke it's
embarrassing
it's slow it's behind it's something you
kind of like well let's change the
subject and talk about what you do
we're setting ourselves up for not being
able to move forward because we've
already painted ourselves in this box
that like we're behind the times and
it's not cool.
Well how can you expect to be innovative
and to move ahead and be interesting
when you've already told yourself that
narrative. It's like you're not good
enough to get anywhere
and as an industry, we got to stop doing
that.
And frankly, that's not a great story
from a recruitment standpoint either
but we need to change the conversation
about
what it is in this industry for our own
sakes for the next generation of people
who work here
I think that's a piece of that cultural
handcuff or that cultural barrier that a
lot of us face in
insurance.
So in that avenue what, I guess, suggestions do you have for
folks that might be on the carrier side
for them to maybe move past that mindset
and
become more comfortable with technology
and innovation and kind of moving in the
right direction of that perception?
Yeah, well so the first and the easiest
one
although it may feel uncomfortable is
you just stop stop that kind of
conversation
like don't feel like you have to dance
around and you can work in insurance and
be proud of that
and maybe taking some time to reflect on
what is interesting about it or reflect
on what you are enabling.
I ran claims, so for us to think about
like you know as
procedural and difficult as it may be
sometimes those those calls are heated
because the customer thinks you're there
to
you know screw them out of coverage
instead of standing by them. 
That's not why you signed up for this
job so remembering like what was it that
drew me here
and what are we really about well we're
about putting people's lives back
together
in the worst moments that they face like
that's a big purpose.
So let's start by focusing on that and
then what I always tell people is
well what are your customers telling you
and don't forget
like you're a customer too. It doesn't
mean you have all the answers but think
about your own life
If you were told to do this
someone told me today like a
16-page paper application for life
insurance isn't another country but the
US
is certainly guilty of this too and then
to also have to get your medical
evaluation all that kind of stuff
do you want to do that when you're busy?
And like think about your life do you
have time to do that or you got to take
time off
you have to have the person come to your
office or right now like people don't
want people coming into their homes to
draw blood and
people who do that don't want to go into
people's homes
so it's like would you even want to
do that you know do you want to wait 10
days to get a paper check
when you've had a loss? Or do you just
want the money showing up in your bank
account
like same day or the next day or getting
Venmoed or PayPal or whatever
would you accept that from anybody
else?
No, so just even asking yourself well how
do I live my life
what do I expect and would I want to do
that so that's a good starting point and
then
hopefully not come up with all the
answers yourself but say
that's just proof to me like I need to
talk to my customers I need to hear from
them firsthand
and that includes if you have agents or
brokers listen to them but also
you have to get to the uninsured because
those are the people living it every day
and if you're not taking that feedback
you're going to miss out on what you
really need to focus on
and there's one other group that knows a
lot of those answers and it's your line
staff
so you know don't just pay lip service
to listen to them actually listen to
them because
they're in it every single day with all
the processes that are painful with all
the customer feedback with all the
frustrations and mistakes and errors
that they have to clean up because
you know cumbersome systems or whatever
it does seem like for a lot of carriers
there's a disconnection there
where it's like well that person's just
a insert whatever their role
it's like that person is directly
connected to the market that person
knows
every single day what's working what
isn't. It doesn't matter what their
schooling is like or how many years of
experience or what their compensation is
none of that matters they're on the
front lines they know something
so let's open up and listen. 
One last
question for you I guess from a change
management perspective. I'm springing
this one on you because it
inspired for me but, when you're
talking about
you know listening to your customers and
your team and coming up with those
innovative ideas how do you manage the
change when then some of that starts to
come
into the organization kind of come down
the the pipe from like again a new
solution is coming in for you to manage
your day-to-day operations
and you know adjudicate that claim?
Yeah well and look, to be honest, like
some of these technologies
will be threats to people's jobs depends
what they are and how they're used and
actually they may seem like a threat but
they may make that person's job
enjoyable all of a sudden where it's
become
less so. It all depends right but for
some change
like in claims when drones were first
coming out every conference i went to it
was all about drones and AI
and when they opened up the floor for
people to submit questions
all the questions were from people who
were in the field adjusting space and
they're all like where's my job going to
be?
How much longer do I have until I'm
laid off? And it's like
we need both. But that's a change
management problem that wasn't being
managed correctly so how do you do that
right and I think one of those pieces
is it's not just your own people who you
need to
manage change with it's also your
customers because they may have changes
to how they interact with you
when you listen to your customers to
your staff this is part of what you need
to listen to
and that includes the people who don't
like what you're saying it's very easy
to be like oh they're a dinosaur they
don't
we need to move past them they're
exactly what the problem is
fine but that sort of lack of humility
and honesty
and I know better than you and you're
just outdated means you're going to miss
some pushback that could be really
valuable in your change management
because those are the people you have to
manage the change with not the adopters
they've got it they're they're going to
get on board so are you listening to the
people who don't get it
are you bringing them into the fold and
an example
I was on a webinar this morning
moderating a panel and one of the
panelists said
you know we actually bring those
people into the pilot group
and you could see a couple people in the
panel were like "Oh my god that's a
terrible idea"
and I'm like no that's brilliant it's
not that they're going to host the POC
or the demo or the trial they're
going to give you the toughest feedback
you can get
and if you end up with them on board at
the end which
if you don't something's not right with
the solution
now you have people who were detractors
who are actually going to be fans that
are going to help you spread it to the
rest of the world because
they saw the light. Myself included. That
Insurtech I worked for? I was an
early customer of
and when I first heard about it at a
conference from one of the founders
I'm thinking in my head I'm like this is
stupid and I told everyone this when I
would
pitch the idea I'm like "I didn't get it
I thought it was a terrible idea like I
didn't see the point"
but they listened to me and they they
were talking through it with me and they
engaged in that conversation being
instead of being like, "Oh that guy
doesn't get it" and just walk away.
You have to engage with the people who
don't understand if you want to move
forward
i found that with our consulting
engagements too some of the people that
push us the hardest or are
have the maybe the most walls to being
accepting to that change
end up, like you said, being your biggest
cheerleaders and yelling from
every mountaintop that they can that
this change is worth giving a try
and so I found that that is you know
bringing those people into the fold
early
and truly having a back and forth
in communication and actually listening
to their concerns
and taking the time to either address
them with the why
or take that into consideration as
you're designing the solution
it makes it a much more smooth
transition
through kind of the full implementation
on the back end.
Yeah, I totally agree you're not going to
win over everybody
but you also can't use that as an excuse
to win over nobody 
Oh I like that saying.
I've got to write that down!
Well thank you so much for joining me Bryan
and sharing your thoughts on
kind of some of your viewpoints
from the book but then also these kind
of
taken the mindset question and flipping
it on its head and giving us some ideas
of how to combat that
I encourage everybody that's watching
to
go over to Bryan's LinkedIn check out
the different books. Again I've,
in addition to some of your insurance
content, I have one of your-
the Do a Day
book as well on my Kindle and so I would
encourage everybody to give that stuff a
read
and a listen from some of the podcasts
that you have. And thanks for joining us
and have a great day everyone!
