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The nirvana for all companies is a relationship with their clients which transcends product and is seen as a mutually beneficial interaction based upon trust. Mutuality by its very nature embraces the principles of such a relationship but has in many cases failed to achieve it. Do new communication mediums offer a fresh opportunity for Mutuals to achieve this holy grail of consumer interaction?

So what does 2010 hold for insurance technology? You’ll hear many predictions but I’d like to think that an impartial, independent view based on a practioner’s guide is both evidential and pragmatic. So here are my top 3:

According to some of the hype, social media will solve all your company's problems, creating fruitful, lasting customer relationships and establishing your brand as the representation of all things good and pure. The barriers to entry are minimal, it is generally low cost to trial, and any fool can easily create a facebook page or kick off a blog. But is the decision to dive in to social media really that simple?

Extracts from FSA website:

Swinton to offer refunds on over 480,000 PPI policies following FSA intervention

GMAC-RFC Limited fined £2.8million for unfair treatment of customers in arrears and repossessions and will pay up to £7.7m customer redress

Certainly there continues to be enough evidence in the media for us to know that not everyone’s ‘TCF house’ is in order.

I am always slightly sceptical of management education. Business schools and training companies can play on our fears that there are pearls of wisdom or Dan Brownesque secrets to successful corporate strategy that will forever remain unknown to us unless we pay eye watering sums of money (that frankly I initially assumed were quoted in Zimbabwean dollars) to learn from prestigious, experienced professors.

John F Kennedy said, ‘Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.’
Whilst Anton Chekhov asserted ‘If you cry 'forward', you must without fail make plain in what direction to go.’

There is no such thing as the perfect operating model. Our world is dynamic and by definition businesses will, therefore, continue to find improvements to their operating model to meet business objectives.