I recently had a chance to spend a week in the San Francisco Bay Area, which offered an opportunity to combine business and pleasure. My son and daughter-in-law are scientists working for startups, which gave us a chance to get better perspective on the elements driving the local economy. It also proved to be a bit of a dream trip for my “inner geek”, as we explore the history of Silicon Valley. What application do I see this having for insurance? Plenty it turns out.
The Valley is a hotbed of activity and the path to getting from its birth to today is surprisingly clear. According to the California Historic Marker, the birthplace is actually at the garage where Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard began their famous collaboration. Their first major customer was Walt Disney and the garage is only a few blocks from Stanford University. HP was where Steve Wozniak worked when he and the other Steve began the Apple journey and the garage they worked in is a short hop from HP’s. There’s an energy in the air that recognizes and rewards both innovation and risk taking.
Google is a short distance away, adjacent to Moffett Airfield, home of the Ames Research Lab (NASA) and the site of many aircraft innovations from the early part of the last century. This is also the home of the famous Hanger One, where the U.S. Navy kept monster airships in the 1930′s. What do you do with an 80 year old building designed to house Zeppelins? Google is taking it over so they can fly things indoors, of course. And test self-driving cars with advanced features and capabilities away from prying eyes.
For the better part of a century, the area has been a focal point for innovation and creativity. Each new advance and breakthrough is a combination of new ideas built out by the next generation of technologists on a foundation that was framed by those who went before them. The next innovative idea may come from a big company with a long track record of success or a small one that is scrambling in the same mode as Hewlett and Packard or Jobs and Wozniak or Brin and Page.
In any case, people are surrounded by an environment of creativity, risk taking and a willingness to tackle big problems. Watching as an outsider from “back east” is engaging, particularly when you consider the financial, technical, educational and legal structures required to keep the engine of innovation running. There is clearly a case of a rising tide lifting all ships. If you want to see what the future may hold, visit The Valley.
Clearly, some others are catching this message. Pharmaceutical companies are setting up and / or investing in research labs. Auto manufacturers are moving work into the area, with BMW now being one on Google’s new neighbors. At least one P&C carrier has an operation there, putting them in close proximity to leading edge thinking and access to technical resources. It turns out things like the application of Big Data Analytics are unencumbered by notions of industry specific barriers.
Some remarkably innovative banks are also located in the same area. While my trip to Silicon Valley started as a family vacation, it became a thoughtful point of introspection on insurance.
Seeing the interaction of business elements, combined with the life changes spawned by technology advances, calls into question the potential viability of legacy systems, operations and processes. While the changes may not happen with the flip of a switch, the best defense, as always, remain a good offense. The list of companies that failed to heed this advice reads like a roll call of spectacularly failed brands. Even recognizing that changes were coming, and in possession of capabilities that could have changed their trajectories, companies like Kodak and Polaroid and DEC (to name but three) found that they could not trade the comfort of the past for the potential of future success. This Success Trap issue is one that should be a point of concern for carriers, as they contemplate both the potential for new forms of competition and the demographic shifts now underway in traditional markets.
Recognizing the value of the phrase “seeing is believing”, Novarica is in the early stages of planning a Research Council meeting to be held in Silicon Valley. We will be targeting mid-year for an event that promises to be both thought provoking and perspective expanding. To quote William Gibson, “the future is already here, it just isn’t evenly distributed”.
For more information on the Silicon Valley meeting, drop me a note at email or give me a call.
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Robert McIsaac is a principal focusing on life insurance, annuities and wealth management at Novarica.
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