The future of insurance will be digital. That much is certain. The industry might have been slow to feel digital technology’s impact, protected by regulation, the size of companies’ in-force portfolios, and customers’ tendency to stay put with their insurers. But the pressure is mounting. In auto insurance, a handful of direct carriers already enjoy the lion’s share of profits. Disruption of other lines of business will surely follow. Distribution channels, products, underwriting technology, competitors, and even business models will shift as technology attacks market inefficiencies and customer expectations evolve.

Most insurers are responding to some degree, albeit often cautiously. Some see how digital technology will transform pieces of the business, but find it harder to envisage how the entire value chain and business model might change. They therefore content themselves with investing in a new sales channel, launching a service app, or automating a few processes. At other carriers, executives believe a transformation will not be completed on their watch, because the magnitude of change required will leave no part of the organization untouched and could take up to a decade. So why bet on an uncertain future and risk cannibalizing existing profits or alienating distributors when they face more pressing issues, such as regulatory compliance?

A growing number of executives, though, are facing up to digital reality. They know that digital technology can significantly improve the performance of their current business. They know that first-movers have an advantage. And they are keenly aware that digital can give birth to entirely new business models that shake up sectors, leaving companies that fail to adapt struggling to survive (newspapers are a case in point). They have therefore taken steps toward transforming their businesses.

They are far enough advanced to know that each stage of the transformation will present challenges. The first will occur at the outset, when the CEO must set the company on the right course for success. More will present themselves during the first six to 18 months—the launch and acceleration phase—when initial changes have to start taking root, and yet others will arise during the long haul of subsequent years, when digital initiatives need to be scaled across the enterprise and digital capabilities and new ways of working become the lifeblood of the company. Already, the industry’s digital pioneers are meeting these challenges and demonstrating to fellow CEOs ways in which they can be overcome. And from these early efforts and successes a set of ten guiding principles is starting to emerge