Steve Jobs in 1997 stole an idea from Nike and inspired his employees with his “Think Different” campaign and challenged them to be “the crazy ones” like those who changed the world before us. If you would like to watch his talk Click Here and be sure to watch until the very end. This is what Apple did to challenge the status quo.
Over the years I have found that there are two types of organizations – ones that continue to do things the way they’ve always done it (content with the status quo) and those that want to be innovative, cutting edge, and want to do THINGS DIFFERENTLY to achieve greater success.
I can remember years ago suggesting to my fellow members of the management team with the insurance agency I worked for at the time, what I felt was a better way to incentivize employees to take on greater responsibility with greater rewards, recognition, and compensation. Rather immediately, the response was that because “this is the way we’ve always done it, we will continue to do it this way.” Sounds like the status quo doesn’t it???
On the other hand, I recently had a conversation with an reinsurance company about how they might want to consider a different approach as to how they price premiums and aggregate factors that are more realistically accurate to reflect a couple of programs that dramatically reduce claim costs. The outcome of the conversation was “if you want to make an omelet you need to crack a few eggs.”
It’s actually kind of amusing to me that this same mentality applies to how business organizations approach their health insurance programs. Once again, there are those who want to continue doing things the same as they’ve always done them with the same people and programs outside their organization, and there are those who are trying to “think differently” and change the way they’ve historically done things.
Just like “the crazy ones” that Steve Jobs talks about in the video, I consider myself to be one of those. It might sound a little weird, but I want to change the world of health insurance as we know it. I have been around the block many, many times and I’ve seen it all – from the ways insurance companies want to sell their programs, to the ways brokers want to sell their programs, and to the ways businesses want to but programs. I want to change that.
Exposure and implementation to new and innovative programs can make a BIG difference for businesses as well as their employees and family members. They don’t have to continue the status quo of high costs, high deductibles, and bad experiences. Think different. To think different means you have to approach things differently than the ways you’ve always done them and be open to new ideas.
About 8 years ago I started to “think different” about health insurance and the ways that brokers historically sold programs to employers. I wanted, and still want to bring real solutions to my clients – not just the same old insurance programs offered by the BUCAs. We are achieving real results because we THINK DIFFERENT. Just ask our clients.
