Over the years, Google has leveraged this ecosystem to enter Nationwide in the US is an example of an insurer that has used a range of partnerships, markets, and business lines—expanding APIs to reduce onboarding time for B2B partners from months 7 from search into businesses such as mobile operating systems to days. It has more than 1,000 internal developers building APIs. and payments. Its North Star is to be invisible to the user This shows how insurers can drive revenue from APIs in much as it orchestrates this ecosystem, which demands sub-200 the same way as digital platforms like Google, Salesforce, eBay millisecond response times. and Expedia. Digital ecosystem plays are bringing disruption to the physical Insurance is well placed to compete in ecosystems because world, said Damion. The ‘just-in-time’ car manufacturing industry, its products and services touch the real world and the real for instance, is being transformed by the real-time business economy, Damion added. The data insurers collect is a real models of Tesla, Waymo and other players in connected asset and they can use it to create powerful customer 6 and autonomous vehicles. This creates new opportunities experiences. Damion outlines three steps insurers can follow for car manufacturers, insurers and others that can adjust to enable their ecosystems: to a new world. • What: Ideation with business teams Application programming interfaces (APIs) are the mechanism • Why: Business case development that insurers can use to rapidly develop digital ecosystems, according to Damion. An API-driven approach offers a faster • How: Start small with big ambition time to market and enables companies to scale innovation. Companies that approach ecosystems via traditional strategic Setting the right incentives for the technology team alliances rather than APIs will not be able to move fast enough and encouraging an experimentation mindset to capitalize on all the opportunities. are keys to success. AN INNOVATION AGENDA FOR THE COVID-19 ERA 12