(Credit: Lauren Lindley)
Disruption is a word you will hear constantly in the ever-changing benefits industry. But have you heard about the power of creative disruption? Creative disruption is an economic theory that refers to the incessant process of innovation where we replace things entirely.
In a recent session at the BenefitsPRO Broker Expo, Josh Butler, president of Butler Benefits & Consulting, Adam Berkowitz, president at Simpara, and Justin Leader, president at BenefitsDNA explore the disruptive forces in the benefits industry and how creative disruption can completely reshape the landscape of health care delivery and health insurance.
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“Whether you are a disruptor or not, our industry is being disrupted,” says Justin Leader. The panelists shared that you might as well hop on the disruption train because it’s going to happen anyways.
The session outlined the first three stages of creative disruption:
- Initiation: Something that sparks awareness about the unsustainability of the status quo.
- Contagion: the initial experiments start to gain attention through success or failure.
- Control: The chaos from the contagion forces industry leaders to get involved.
Below are the panelists’ thoughts on how the stages of disruption are happening in this industry right now.
Initiation
“If you grow up inside a box, you don’t know it’s a box. Then you step outside and see a different way of doing things,” says Justin Leader.
“There is a market dynamic that is demanding a change because we cannot continue down this path. It’s bankrupting us,” explains Adam Berkowitz.
“I think a lot of initiation is being forced. That’s why I say whether or not you’re a disruptor, it’s upon you, it’s upon our industry and you can disrupt or be disrupted,” says Josh Butler.
Contagion
“Employers don’t feel like they have a valuable alternative. And even if they did, they are afraid of alternative because of the massive failures we have seen in this space,” expresses Butler.
“It’s not easy, otherwise everyone would be doing this. You have to be at the bleeding edge, but if you’re in the class of leading edge folks it’s exhausting,” Leader explains.
“The pain of staying the same is no longer. We have to do something different. Employers don’t have a choice anymore,” Berkowitz says.
Control
“Everything feels chaotic. This phase forces industry leadership to step in,” Butler says.
“It’s important to frame that this trillion dollar industry requires patients. We understand how it got to where it is. These big companies’ models are built on you being sick,” Berkowitz finishes.
Berkowitz ends the session by saying, “There is no finish line in this game. It’s an everlasting battle.”
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