Emerging Insight: Timing success
28 August 2015
As we have frequently seen, it is vital that products are timed in relation to the level of development of the insurance market in a country. If overly complex products are introduced too early, they are usually difficult to sell and may even damage clients’ trust in insurance.
Internal time frames are just as important. A recent review of failures in microinsurance found that issues of timing were behind many commonly-experienced challenges. An organization’s mind-set regarding investment and returns’ horizons plays a critical role in their success or failure. Schemes may experience several setbacks before profitable models are found. Seven out of the twelve schemes covered in the study stuck with microinsurance, learnt from their experiences, and are still active in the sector, while the remaining five failed altogether. One of the schemes, AIC, for example, believes that its struggles with multiple disasters in Haiti in 2012 strengthened its culture and commitment to the market. It was able to weather the storm and come out stronger because of its leadership’s commitment and long-term vision.
Such commitment from an organisation’s leadership is vital. Furthermore, it is essential to promote a culture in which mistakes can be made, analyzed and corrected over time. Establishing suitable timescales reduces pressure for immediate results, and setting and monitoring intermediate targets helps to ensure these timescales are maintained. Targets need not only be linked to output measures such as policies sold or premium collected, but can also be linked to activity measures, such as education campaigns conducted or villages reached.
Organisations need to accept that setbacks may be frequent and that a long timescale will be needed to see microinsurance flourish.
As Tim Brown, founder of IDEO.org puts it: “Failure is an inherent part of the [design] process, because we’ll just never get it right on our first try. In fact, getting it right on the first try isn’t the point at all. The point is to put something out into the world and then use it to keep learning, keep asking, and keep testing.”
Read more in our full paper: Learning from others’ mistakes.
Internal time frames are just as important. A recent review of failures in microinsurance found that issues of timing were behind many commonly-experienced challenges. An organization’s mind-set regarding investment and returns’ horizons plays a critical role in their success or failure. Schemes may experience several setbacks before profitable models are found. Seven out of the twelve schemes covered in the study stuck with microinsurance, learnt from their experiences, and are still active in the sector, while the remaining five failed altogether. One of the schemes, AIC, for example, believes that its struggles with multiple disasters in Haiti in 2012 strengthened its culture and commitment to the market. It was able to weather the storm and come out stronger because of its leadership’s commitment and long-term vision.
Such commitment from an organisation’s leadership is vital. Furthermore, it is essential to promote a culture in which mistakes can be made, analyzed and corrected over time. Establishing suitable timescales reduces pressure for immediate results, and setting and monitoring intermediate targets helps to ensure these timescales are maintained. Targets need not only be linked to output measures such as policies sold or premium collected, but can also be linked to activity measures, such as education campaigns conducted or villages reached.
Organisations need to accept that setbacks may be frequent and that a long timescale will be needed to see microinsurance flourish.
As Tim Brown, founder of IDEO.org puts it: “Failure is an inherent part of the [design] process, because we’ll just never get it right on our first try. In fact, getting it right on the first try isn’t the point at all. The point is to put something out into the world and then use it to keep learning, keep asking, and keep testing.”
Read more in our full paper: Learning from others’ mistakes.