Being right is not enough. Strategy only matters if it gets executed. In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VanderLinden speaks with Dr. Dietmar Kottmann, Partner at Oliver Wyman and lead author of the InsurTech Radar, about what truly drives successful insurance transformation. Dietmar shares a formative lesson from the early .com era: delivering a strategy that was intellectually correct — later validated by a successful startup — yet watching the incumbent client fail to execute it. The insight was sound. The implementation faltered. That experience shaped his philosophy: consulting is not academic research. It is about creating tangible impact. Today, Dietmar advises three primary client groups: Financial sponsors investing in digital insurance assets Entrepreneurs building new InsurTech ventures Incumbents transforming for digital relevance The last category remains the most complex — and the most urgent. To understand transformation, Dietmar distinguishes between three types of innovation: Efficiency innovations — reducing waste and improving cost structures Sustaining innovations — enhancing products incrementally Market-creating innovations — repositioning the business for emerging realities Most incumbents excel at the first two. The third is where future winners emerge. When analyzing successful InsurTech businesses, Dietmar sees two dominant models: Companies solving structural inefficiencies at scale Platform models that rent access to customers — similar to Amazon’s marketplace dynamic The common thread? They rethink value delivery, not just product features. For Dietmar, innovation begins with a simple but profound question: whose life are we trying to improve? What progress are they seeking — functional, emotional, social? Real transformation requires understanding all three dimensions. This mindset shifts strategy from product iteration to purpose-driven problem solving. Curiosity fuels that process. From programming on a Sinclair ZX81 as a teenager to leading digital strategy across Europe, Dietmar credits relentless curiosity as the driver of his professional evolution. In an era of accelerating disruption, the temptation is to optimize the next product release. But long-term relevance demands deeper inquiry: how is the market fundamentally changing — and where should we position ourselves now? This episode is essential listening for: Insurance executives designing digital strategies InsurTech founders refining business models Investors evaluating platform economics Transformation leaders focused on real execution Because strategy without impact is theory. And the insurers that embed curiosity, customer progress, and platform thinking into their DNA will define the next chapter of the industry. The rest may be right — but too late.