The lagging pace of digital transformation in marine insurance can be frustrating to observe, but there is a key upside: insurers can look to the past experience of other industries to understand what their future will soon look like.

In my presentation at the Marine Insurance Singapore, i will explore the three stages of organisational development in a digital world and share my thoughts on the type of leader needed to transform and modernise marine insurers.

The three stages outlined below draw upon the 20-year journey undertaken by retail banks in Norway, many of which are now reaping the benefits of digital maturity.

• Stage one: Immaturity In a digitally immature organisation, the business side see themselves as the revenue-generating heroes while IT is regarded as little more than a cost centre. Crucially, there’s very little cooperation and the relationship is entirely one-sided with the business commanding IT. There is no global IT strategy within the organisation, and IT people are typically only hired for lower-level operational roles with no IT talent at the leadership level. This siloed situation is compounded by the fact that the two sides (business and IT) usually exist in two different locations.

• Stage two: Developing maturity The business and IT sides of the organisation draw closer. Management begins to understand the necessary role technology will play in evolving the business, and the two sides begin exploring ways to work better together. At this stage, the business will finally place an IT leader in the management team who will work to create a bridge between IT and the business. However, they remain two separate entities.

• Stage three: Digital maturity Siloes have dissolved, meaning there is no longer any separation between IT and business. The leadership team understands and embraces two realities; every business is now a technology business, and every business change has a technology element.

Separate functions have been reorganised into cross-functional teams, with IT and business people sharing competencies. Importantly, the leadership team is now comprised of business people with a deep understanding of how to use technology to evolve the business.

Most of the leaders I've spoken with in marine insurance are stuck in stage one. They see themselves as representatives of the “business” who prefer to keep IT as a separate entity.

What type of leader and skills are needed?

When discussing digital skillsets, it’s easy to fall into generational debates about digital natives vs older generations who are more difficult to shift.

While it’s important to bring in a new generation of digital talent, I would argue that the best drivers of digital transformation in your organisation may have already been with your business for 30 or 40 years.

I have seen many 60-year-olds who are fantastic at adapting to change and are embracing new technology with gusto. They are so valuable because their decades of experience have given them an incredibly deep understand of all parts of the business; and they use this rich understanding when leveraging and adapting the technology.

It doesn’t matter whether your leadership team has business people with technology understanding, or technology people with business understanding. Both are equally valuable and will be vital when driving marine insurers out of immaturity and into the digital era.

Be curious

Despite the growing plethora of digital leadership education offerings on the market, in my opinion there is only one key attribute that is required for digital success: curiosity. Being curious about people, new skills, and new ways of running your business will equip anyone – no matter how old they are – with the ability to adapt to the transformational change that is coming.

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