Zurich has launched a new initiative to tackle changing customer demands and help drive change throughout its operations, the UK Innovation Foundry, set to be led by Mark Budd, UK Head of Innovation.
The Innovation Foundry will progress Zurich’s innovation agenda and support the development of all ideas in a formally coordinated way.
It aims to seek out long-term partnerships rather than focus on M&A or acquisition, while helping the insurer work with customers and consider their behaviours and needs.
David White, Managing Director, Retail at Zurich Insurance, commented; “we launched the UK Innovation Foundry to build on a central principle of Zurich’s global strategy – that innovation and fostering an innovative culture should be a permanent fixture for all organisations that want to stay relevant.
“If we are going to think and work differently, we need to focus our efforts in the right places and the Innovation Foundry will take ideas from an initial ‘spark’, test them for value at every stage and move to a full scale roll-out for the right ideas.
“Building on our experience and achievements over the past year, we aim to work this in to the very fabric of our business. No idea will be considered wrong, however, if something doesn’t work we want to fail fast and move on to the next thing. This is a very exciting time for Zurich in the UK so watch this space!”
Zurich has recently set up a partnership with Laka, a disruptive bike insurance product and has launched FaceQuote, a selfie tool helping people understand what life cover would cost.
In addition, Zurich has teamed up with EasyJet to offer dynamic insurance pricing models intuitively aligned to the specific requirement of each customer.
The innovation process being used within the Innovation Foundry was created with support from specialists in insurance innovation and long-term partners of Zurich, Ninety Consulting.
