RADICALLY ADAPTIVE: How companies managed to successfully adapt

Over the past decades, the entertainment industry has been disrupted by major changes time and again. Netflix, for example, started out as a DVD delivery service in the late 1990s but had to rethink its initially very successful business model only a few years in and switch to streaming to meet changing customer expectations. Since then, the company has done everything in its power to remain adaptive – for example by implementing continuous delivery to keep their customers’ software up to date at all times.

Disney is the perfect example for a company with a long history that truly transformed itself: from its beginnings as a children’s cartoon studio in the 1920s to dominating the theme park business and eventually turning into one of the world’s largest media conglomerates that owns two of the highest-grossing movie franchises, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars. In late 2019, the media giant eventually entered the streaming market with Disney+: although late to the game, the video on demand service has garnered considerable success since then and is now the number three streaming platform in Germany.

Disney+ is shaking up the global streaming market: the streaming service is now present in 64 markets – and seeing the fastest growth in 58 of them. Disney+ is dominating the streaming game in Europe, Canada, India, and South America, as recent research has shown.

The rapid rise of video streaming services in the entertainment industry started long before COVID-19 hit and has only gained momentum since then. The big players out of the United States are dominating the markets, but broadcasters are following suite – Germany is seeing media companies like RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 Media expand their portfolios for current information. They are all going with the times.

Insurance is another industry that is digitally reinventing itself. Awareness for digital advice solutions has long predated the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the private insurance market where the importance and pace of closing rates has been increasing for a while now. Whether they are comparing premiums, submitting invoices, or reporting claims – customers are increasingly expecting a seamless online experience. Then there are new market entrants like InsurTechs or, to give a current example, the US-based automaker Tesla that will soon extend its online offering for affordable auto insurance to its German customers as well. So we will continue to see a lot of movement in the market going forward.

Many insurance companies have already implemented digital advice solutions – with built-in features such as premium calculators, screensharing, co-browsing, whiteboard features, and digital signatures. The possibilities are plentiful: data analytics, artificial intelligence, and robotic process automation for faster, more efficient processes. Now it is time to implement them.

According to a recent study, 37 percent of people in Germany would like to see more digital options for taking out insurance policies. One in two consumers in Germany has bought insurance online at least once in their lives. At 65 percent, the 30-49 demographic accounts for the largest share here.

Studies have also shown that this trend is reflected in the sales channels as well. While only 6 percent of Germans have bought insurance through their smartphone to date, 33 percent said that they can imagine doing so in the future.

The growing number of InsurTech companies is also contributing to the transformation of the insurance sector. Some develop solutions for insurance companies, with a strong customer focus, especially in the traditional private customer segment from auto to liability to travel insurance. This is yet another area where the digital transformation brings great opportunities. Other InsurTech players are positioning themselves as competitors and directly targeting consumers with their digital technologies and advice solutions.

The industry is undergoing major changes. Customers are increasingly willing to embrace digital solutions and the competition is fierce. What we are likely to see is large insurance companies transforming themselves into platform providers or orchestrators – either as B2C platform operators with direct customer interfaces or by taking a B2B approach with other industry participants. To be successful here, however, they need to start modernizing their IT environments now and closely align them with their sales and service strategies.