Why digital innovation does not succeed in a quiet room

More than 150 years after its founding, Swiss Re is still thriving – thanks to constant evolution in how it does business. While the core of what we do (risk transfer) has remained constant, how we conduct re/insurance business today would likely be unthinkable to employees 50 years ago. Modernisation has immensely increased efficiency and scalability, making it possible to reach more clients and expand business. Today, innovation is not only a driver, but an imperative.

Future-proof insurance solutions must address a changing risk-landscape for which decades-old models no longer work. Customer behaviour and needs are shifting at lightning speed – the pace even increased throughout the pandemic. I experience this myself: the more I manage my own insurance online, the harder it is to imagine physically going into a branch to take out a policy. Re/insurance providers need to respond to these expectations.

However, the challenge of innovation in the digital age is that it is not a subtle renovation of existing businesses, but a total rebuild. This is because innovation is not limited to individual technologies. In in fact, innovation today has a lot to do with its Latin meaning: complete change and renewal. In order to create digital innovations with business impact, mindset, culture, ways of working and roles must also change.

So, how to cultivate an environment which enables change and fosters innovation? What conditions allow employees to explore problems from different angles?

In my view the solution lies in a balance between adaptable goals, a flexible and creative culture of empowerment, an environment where it is ok to make mistakes, fast feedback loops and room for experimentation. I love to cook and, as any hobby chef will tell you, the secret to success in the kitchen is not just the right ingredients but the right proportion of each ingredient. The same is true with innovation in re/insurance. These necessary conditions for innovation – in the right measures – allow us to harness vast volumes of data and analytics capabilities to detect, mitigate and even predict risks to protect more people and businesses.

For all the enthusiasm for new digital technologies, it's important to ask ourselves how they create value for customers – for example, by making buying insurance easier to purchase. With this in mind, we actively evaluate emerging innovations through Swiss Re's proprietary Tech Trend Radar. In conjunction with our business and strategy, it enables us to respond to trends, test assumptions and create solutions. And, since for many of today's challenges there is no simple solution from a single company, we actively partner with specialised innovation partners and technology companies, such as Microsoft and Amazon, to create value through innovation.

What was true for our founders over 150 years ago is still valid: there has never been an innovation that wasn't driven by curiosity to tackle a challenge on a new, untrodden path.