Corporate culture in insurance may block true innovation

It has become clear that the insurance industry is under pressure to innovate to remain relevant to its clients. In order to do so, the culture in traditional players may have to change to overcome the challenges the sector faces.

That was one of the discussion points at the Intelligent InsurTech Europe conference in London, which took place on Wednesday November 16, with several delegates also making this point in live interviews with Intelligent Insurer.

In recent years, the insurance sector has been digitising its business, moving from a distribution model based on agents to an automated distribution model online. In addition, the growing availability of data has allowed for new risk assessment processes and product innovation such as tailored and usage-based insurance.

This development has been accelerated through new entrants to the market and is challenging the corporate culture of companies as employees need to adapt to a changing environment.

“What I am pushing very hard for is not so much the technology part but the culture,” said Andre Guyer, head of digital transformation at Zurich Insurance. “The technology is there,” but “the question is, do we have the right people with the right attitude, enthusiasm, work environment, who can then really translate this technology in some business value?”

The corporate culture at traditional insurers may need to change not only to allow for innovative approaches to market, but also to enable insurers to attract the right talent, Guyer said.

He wants to make sure that Zurich is able to attract experts needed to grow the business in a digital environment and make sure that IT or digitally-savvy talent wants to join Zurich as the insurer competes with the types of Google, Amazon or Microsoft. “It’s all about people,” he noted.

Munich Re agrees that staff needs to reflect the changing business environment.

“We are trying to attract people from outside insurance, people with background in IT, people with background in technology, people who know which new systems are being developed, trying to get people with different knowledge to shake things up a bit internally,” said Yannis Korgialos, Munich Re’s partner development manager.