There are a myriad of ways to leverage the external innovation ecosystem. This choice can be difficult to navigate and can contribute to the challenge in developing an innovation strategy. Some of the largest global insurers are making concerted efforts to align strategy and innovation, but many companies are struggling. This lack of alignment between strategy and operations is one of the factors hindering innovation and is explored in more detail in this report.

“Not all innovation efforts are equal and the lack of clarity on what innovation is needed for a specific insurer undermines efforts to deliver it.” says Mike Fitzgerald, senior analyst with Celent’s Insurance practice and coauthor of the report.

The aim of this report is to expand on factors that impede leveraging the external innovation system, and to outline a method of creating a company-specific framework for leveraging external innovation. This framework takes into account the expectations from an innovation program and company appetite for speed, risk, and return. The report closes with Celent’s predictions on how this space might evolve.

This report is based Celent’s experience with accelerators and on more than a dozen interviews with a range of people from insurer venture capital, venture capital, innovation service providers, system integrators, accelerators, and insurance innovation heads.

This report contains six charts and three tables.