I've been reading and thinking about Jeff Jarvis's new book, What Would Google Do? A thought provoking read. It has made me look at my business quite differently.
The book and his blog do talk about insurance. However, I was not enthralled with his (and his readers) vision. Sorry Jeff. (Read the chapter here - starts a few paragraphs from the top.)
Here is my version of GoogleSure.com...
Insurance is a risk management tool. The risk of loss is assumed by an organization (the insurer) which has many units, only a small number of which will have a loss.
An insurance company insures 1,000 houses at $600 each ($600,000) knowing that only 10 will have fires that average $50,000 ($500,000).
Starting in 1688, Lloyd's of London organized risk sharing by allowing for risks to be spread amoungst many different syndicates. Each syndicate had a risk expert who would accept a share of the risk by signing a document outlining the risk - he wrote his name under the description of the risk - he was an "underwriter." (BTW, that's Lloyd's in the pic above)
Google could provide the same syndication system on a worldwide basis using its ability to organize and integrate data with those who can use the data to make decisions.
In GoogleSure.com, brokers would assimilate information on risks and the context of the insurance desired. Those risks would then be posted for the risk-taking individuals or syndicates to assume shares by bidding for the risk.
Syndicate A offers 10% of the risk at a fee (premium) of $1,000.
Syndicate B offers 15% of the risk at a fee of $1,100...
Syndicate B offers 15% of the risk at a fee of $1,100...
...and so on until 100% of the risk has been fully subscribed to, at a premium acceptable to the insured.
The offers of coverage and requests for indemnity would all be made public throughout the process providing a perfectly competitive environment - www.GoogleSure.com.
An eBay like rating system of claim and policyholder service would be available for any and all to see, allowing for some quantitative measure of quality. Service providers would fight as hard as eBayers do for high ratings. Buyers would seek out and pay extra for services by highly ranked providers.
Individuals could form groups of syndicates to offer similar entities similar policies - home insurance, small business insurance, etc.
In my enthusiasm for this approach I tried to grab the domain, GoogleSure.com. Already taken. Hmmm?
No comments:
Post a Comment