Building a New Business Model at Blue Marble Microinsurance

October 28, 2015 by Joan Lamm-Tennant
As with many modern businesses, Blue Marble Microinsurance Inc. began with the same question entrepreneurs and innovators ask themselves every day: What can we do differently that will eliminate inefficiencies and redirect resources to a more value-accretive cause? Executive SummaryRecognizing the barriers to success in microinsurance, eight insurance entities came together with a unique business model to share the cost of innovation and mutualize talent from within and beyond the industry. Here CEO Joan Lamm-Tennant describes the mission and the model of Blue Marble Microinsurance.

The underlying mission of Blue Marble is tied to economic development and the recognition that insurance is important to economic development around the world. Without prefinancing losses, societies are vulnerable. Following disasters, people who show potential for emerging into the middle class frequently fall back to the bottom of the economic pyramid.

Executive Summary

Recognizing the barriers to success in microinsurance, eight insurance entities came together with a unique business model to share the cost of innovation and mutualize talent from within and beyond the industry. Here CEO Joan Lamm-Tennant describes the mission and the model of Blue Marble Microinsurance.

With the knowledge that fortifying the economic progression of the poor would add untold benefits to the global economy, to our industry and, of course, to the poor themselves, we asked another simple question: What needs to change in the insurance and reinsurance industry to make it relevant to the poor?

To examine this question further, Blue Marble’s founders needed to be open-minded about doing things differently and having a willingness to learn while leading. Only by researching the facts could Blue Marble articulate the problem that the founders set out to solve and establish a mission backed by a business model. The problem was clearly identified in research literature.