By Bruce Broussard, President and CEO at Humana
Dec 3, 2015 – It’s always interesting to hear the strong opinions people have about Uber. Some like to say they have not taken a cab since they started using Uber while others enjoy how easy it is to rate your driver thanks to the mobile app service.
If you’ve had any kind of business trip in the last few years, chances are you’ve heard some variation of these comments from a colleague. And if you’re in an industry where everyone is looking to disrupt, you’ve heard of “Uberization.”
It’s fascinating to see how deciding whether to use Uber leads to a conversation about the power of disrupting an industry. We’ve all seen how the “Uberization” of transportation has begun to unfold. So it leads to a simple question: what industry is next for disruption?
Some say the finance industry is going to experience Uberization. In a very insightful column, “The Uberization of Money” by Zachary Karabell, which ran in The Wall Street Journal, Karabell examines how “the Uberization of finance” will lead to new banking models. In his column, Karabell explores how the process of buying a house could evolve:
- “Imagine instead a simple online interface that could generate a tailored credit score for you, taking into account your future earning potential based on your education and location. It would connect you to lenders ranging from banks and credit unions to pools of individuals who want to lend privately at a negotiated rate for whatever duration you agree on.”
Karabell’s commentary is about connecting people based on their interests. He goes on to state that Uber is a “high-tech middleman that is making the intermediaries of the past obsolete. The financial world is one of the most mediated industries on the planet, and that is precisely what is about to change. Uberization also means using vast amounts of data to make those connections feasible.”
So, Uber is about connecting people with a driver, leaving the dispatcher out of the picture. The financial industry is about connecting people seeking loans directly to the people who can loan them money.
Could this happen in health care? Here’s a hint: it already has.
SOURCE: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/does-health-care-need-uberization-bruce-broussard
