De-centralising data innovation aids global growth, says Markel International
An emphasis on encouraging regional offices to lead on data innovation is helping Markel International accelerate its global growth without losing its entrepreneurial spirit, according to Carys Lawton-Bryce, chief operating officer at Markel International.
Her comments came as she spoke at the Intelligent Insurer Commercial Lines Innovation Europe 2023 conference in London.
In her session, titled ‘Lead the drive to operational excellence in commercial lines’, moderated by Tony Tarquini, industry advisor at 5189 Limited, she said that avoiding a mismatch between strategy and operations was a “significant challenge”. This is because you often see high level strategy coming from the c-suite but operations on the ground take a long time to change causing frustration for everyone. “It takes the ship a long time to turn around when the data and processes are not there.”
She said that the only way to address that is to step back and think about operational strategy for the longer term rather than within an annual planning cycle.
“You need to think about ‘where are we going?’ and ‘what do we need to meet those ambitions?’.
“One of our core purposes is to grow the business internationally. For example, this year we’ve opened offices in Australia,” she said.
However, Lawton-Bryce said the company had observed that its processes and operations are very London centric. “To grow faster outside of London what was once a strength becomes a business blocker. So we wanted to make sure our systems work as well outside London as in London.”
Support for greater regional digital innovation was perfectly timed for the new office to open in Australia because those changes and processes were already underway.
“They didn’t have to take on lots of extra costs or process burdens because this data innovation strategy was already underway.”
She also advocated “empowering” the right people who understand and champion change. For example more junior underwriters that are au fait with digital processes and developing techniques.
She emphasised the importance of aligning business objectives with operational strategies to drive success, saying that the reduced costs and enhanced customer experiences were great, while continuous improvement initiatives helped build the future of the business.
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