Identifying and sharing ideas on direction Learning from the investors’ ‘portfolio thinking’ approach is fundamental for corporations to diversify their bets and determine venturing proposals that categorize and develop incrementally. It is important not to constrain choices in the early stages of indentifying venture leads and building deal flow. Because of the depth of our understanding of the insurance value chain, we can often accelerate this process through the ecosystems we have indentified and developed for many market players. This is where open innovation, external network development, and priority mapping become essential steps to help connect the dots faster. Structured and formalized mechanisms must be in place to filter findings based on clearly agreed and defined criteria. We tend to use a series of evaluation and measurement criteria linked to whether we are dealing with process, sustaining or game-changing innovations, a company’s development stage, and the outcome that needs to be achieved (e.g. partnership, investment, acquisition, etc.). Accelerating, commercializing and scaling As we find our best bets, there are also instances where no options are available to fulfill a specific customer solution-market fit. The thinking needs to be so drastically different to yield expected returns (or shake up the sector) that new digital ventures need to be evaluated, designed and launched. We can accelerate and commercialize the due diligence of growth ventures within operations. We help our partners deliver new, more targeted products and services or augment existing value chains through experimentation, testing, and iterative evaluation. We also evaluate the businesses of tomorrow to build winning ventures based on what we learn from current digital successes. 42