Innovation in Insurance

Protagonist:
Sudhir Sharma & Ravi Ahuja (Young enthusiast)
It was in the new product development brainstorming session that the words of Theodore
Levitt, could not have resonated better with the current problem that Sudhir Sharma was
facing. What would be the next new product which would address an unmet need in the
General Insurance industry?
Sudhir, took inspiration from the works of Theodore Levitt. He pondered upon literatures
and article of Levitt. Sudhir said, ”To continue growing we need to ascertain and act on
our customers’ need and desire and not bank on our presumed longevity of our existing
product line”. He was quoting this from an article that he read long time back.
Ravi: Insurance is a growth industry, we are seeing double digit growth in General
Insurance and there is an enormous market which is untapped. I think any and every
product will find a buyer, we have so many products and its variants in Health, Motor and
corporate space as of now1. So, why a new product again?
Sudhir was skeptical, he had an answer to that: There is no such thing as growth industry.
We are organized to operate on the growth opportunities. He firmly believed that
industries that assume to be riding some automatic growth wave invariably descend into
stagnation. We do not want the same to happen here, bountiful expansion and
undetected decay.
Ravi: So in order to find growth opportunities, we need to innovate on new products
and offering?
Sudhir: Yes, that is the idea.
Ravi: Simple, why can’t we then replicate the new general insurance products and
services that are doing the rounds in the market?
Sudhir: Can you elaborate?

1
List of products - https://www.icicilombard.com/docs/default-source/downloads/listtt.pdf?sfvrsn=2
Ravi: Oscar Health, Metro Mile, Pay per Km, Zhong An, Toffee Insurance, Community
insurance, Lemonade and a lot of others.
Sudhir: What worked elsewhere may not necessarily work here, however a hybrid model
which includes innovation in channel or mode of distribution could be thought through.
This is after all a new product development brainstorming session but innovation in
Channel and Segment could be considered as well.
Ravi had a long road carved out for him to ideate an innovative offering for General
Insurance industry also keeping in mind products which they have already developed 2.
Help Ravi in it.

2
List of products - https://www.icicilombard.com/docs/default-source/downloads/listtt.pdf?sfvrsn=2