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October 17th - 19th,
1999
"Technology Expert: No Single Best Way to Use Internet"
Companies "used to believe that there's one right way of doing business," May said. "'We like this innovation idea, Thornton, who can we copy?'" May spoke Tuesday at the A.M. Best's Insurance information and Technology Conference in Baltimore. May, who's also an adjunct faculty member at the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, said all companies are concerned that someone else knows the way to best use the Internet. He said he's tired of stories about how great Amazon.com is. "I don't want to hear that," he said. He said even Internet giants like Amazon.com aren't perfect. For instance, Amazon found its software mistakenly allowed customers to order negative quantities of books. And USA Today Online found its credit card processing software wouldn't allow customers to cancel their subscriptions. However, he said successful Internet companies have one thing in common--different DNA. The oldest person on Amazon's top management team is 46, with three of seven top people 35 or younger. May said companies shouldn't overlook older workers who bring a different kind of experience, but said they need to draw younger, more technologically savvy, workers, too. May said companies need to create an attractive environment. He said technology people don't only work eight-hour days; they even work all night to get a project done on time. Then, after finishing a project, some tech teams take a week off to travel to the beach for vacation. "The nature of work has changed," May said. "Workers are focused on projects, not days." He said managers often wrongly believes they are ahead of the pack when it comes to e-commerce. While 43% of chief executive officers, chief operating officers and chief financial officers said they were ahead of the competition, only 11% of workers in the trenches agreed. Most workers (59%) said their e-commerce strategy kept them in the herd, with safety in numbers. To illustrate this, May asked the audience how many had an e-mail address on their business cards and how many had a company Web page. Most raised their hands. Then May asked how many actually sell insurance policies through the Internet, and all but a few hands came down. "We in the insurance industry know there's a problem," May said. "The environment has changed. How fast can we change?" By Meg Green |
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Straight Talk about a Non-Linear Digital
Future: 
Insurers looking for the single best way to profit
from the Internet aren't going to find it, said Thornton May, vice president of
research and education at Cambridge Technology Partners.