13 connected strategy in the health insurance industry the entire healthcare system. While they have been successful in disrupting incumbents within the niche segments that don’t involve employer-sponsored plans, it remains to be seen if their successful use of connected strategies with consumers can be extended from a B2C setting to a B2B environment. 2. Incumbents can expand into connected strategies by using external M&A activity as a way to boost connected capabilities and culture. Incumbent health insurance companies are realizing that, in addition to performing all their B2B functions, they must play an active role in the life of their members beyond simply being a payer or reimburser. Since their core capabilities are in the B2B segment, these incumbents have been using a mix of large mergers and strategic investments to develop more connected capabilities and customer-centricity. Two examples we studied above were how Aetna used its large merger with CVS in order to expand the range of services and channels through which it can connect with members and how Cigna is using smaller strategic investments to integrate or learn from in order to build its virtual care and personalized recommendations capabilities. While it is too soon to assess the success of these strategies, their increasing adoption by firms and consumers suggest these connected strategies in healthcare do create value for consumers and are here to stay, and that M&A will be a common path to acquire those capabilities that may not lie within incumbent players. 3. Employing connected strategies effectively can take longer for incumbents than for emerging firms. While incumbents have been expanding into connected strategies, these projects have been more challenging and slower than those of new health-tech start-ups for a few reasons. First, most incumbents are large publicly-traded companies whose short-term consid- erations may be barriers to the large investments needed to expand into connected strategies, some of which may only have a long-term payoff. Indeed, public companies need to manage expectations with investors and Wall Street analysts on a quarterly basis, which is not the best environment for the disruptive, long-term investments that connected strategies need. Second, traditional insurers may suffer from inertia in terms of their organizational structure, system of activities, and strategic market positioning. Employing connected strategies may move them to a new peak in terms of the competitive landscape, but