Senior executives at insurance companies, like their peers inother industries, are charged with developing and executing theright set of strategies that will lead to success.

In years past, strategists at insurance companies have had attheir disposal a relatively standard array of strategies to chosefrom, their job being to prioritize and balance the investments andresources devoted to each.

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Do we expand our distribution channel network? Put more focus onnew products and services? Modernize our foundational policy,billing, and claim systems?

These questions and others were the traditional types ofquestions that executives had to address. Those traditional areasare still important and must be part of the mix for modern insurerstrategies. However, a new class of strategic initiatives hasemerged that is growing in importance.

'New World' initiatives

Now, insurers must consider how to incorporate digitaltransformation, InsurTech, emerging technologies, and others intotheir business and technology strategies. These "New World"initiatives are poised to reshape the insurance industry, and it isessential that every insurer build them into their plans.

A sizable challenge ensues — combining the traditionalstrategic initiatives with these new world initiatives into justthe right blend to make each company successful, today and in thefuture. This is the new balancing act that executives musttackle — and some may feel like they are teetering on ahigh wire.

SMA has been tracking the evolution of insurer's strategicinitiatives for many years. The changes in these initiatives painta picture of an industry in transformation and are highlighted in anew SMA e-book, Strategic Initiatives in Insurance,2018 and Beyond. The e-book covers the different paths thatproperty/casualty and life/annuity insurers are taking andidentifies how companies are prioritizing 12 strategic initiatives(five traditional, six new world, and innovation, which spans theold and new).

Transformation mode

Several interesting phenomena are occurring. For one thing,there are more and more executives that consider their companies tobe in transformation mode, actively trying to redesign and reshapethe company for higher growth in the digital age. In addition, bothinnovation and digital have swept over the industry like atsunami.

About 90% of insurers have significant initiatives for digital transformation and corporate-wideinnovation. CEOs feature their digital strategies andinvestments in their letters to shareholders and earnings callswith Wall Street financial analysts. Chief Digital Officers are ahot commodity in the industry.

Regarding innovation, more insurers are trying to move beyondthe early stages of innovation to create a broad-based culture ofinnovation that is sustainable and organic. One other interestingdevelopment is the clear recognition that core systems must bemodern to support the demands of a digital, connected world.

Modern policy, billing, and claim systems are the essentialenablers that allow insurers to capitalize on the opportunities fornew products, new channel partners, new business models, andsignificant operational improvements.

Likely to be an exciting year

Finally, it is fascinating to observe the industry as it engageswith InsurTech and emerging technologies. Not that long ago,technologies like mobile and analytics were considered "emerging."Now they are table stakes and supportive of a new class oftechnologies like artificial intelligence, drones, the Internet ofThings and many more.

The InsurTech movement has exploded onto the scene,with well over a thousand startups relevant to the industry. Theindustry is increasingly engaging with InsurTechs and exploringemerging tech, with each company prioritizing based on their linesof business and business models.

This year — 2018 — is likely to be an excitingone for the industry as the transformation continues. Stay tunedfor interesting developments as insurers execute on their strategicinitiatives.

MarkBreading is a partner at Boston-based SMA. Emailhim at [email protected]. This article firstappeared on StrategyMeetsAction.com, and isreprinted here with their permission. Opinions expressed in thisarticle are the author'sown.