Julie Davis, Vice President of Heffernan Insurance Brokers, provided a keynote speech at Stanford University during the quarterly California Women's Network meeting in July 2011.
She spoke about the growing area of Collaborative Consumption. Latitude and Shareable Magazine released
findings of "The New Sharing Economy Study," which uncovered new opportunities for entrepreneurs, investors, and established companies in the growing area of "shared services."
The study points to top opportunities for new sharing services. They include firms that have an operating model
that share physical spaces, tangible assets and property, intellectual property, household goods, online communities and network and more. It is predicted that shared service firms will continue to drive growth in our economy, and related investment opportunities will continue to be aligned, but shared service firms have special business, insurance and risk management needs.
But sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting and swapping have insurance and risk management challenges. "Firms face a wide range of business insurance and risk management concerns associated with operating a shared service business. Essentially, risk management concerns surround the areas of shared ownership, responsibility, maintenance and usage. The collaboration and sharing of physical assets create unique insurance and risk management challenges for many of these firms. The insurance industry has been slow to adapt to these changes. This creates the need for customization and specialization," said Davis.
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