As the world around us rapidly transforms, we need to adapt our strategies, processes, skills, behaviours, and cultures to keep pace. But the question is, how?
Based on our extensive experience and insight into the insurance industry, we’ve identified four key areas that organisations need to concentrate on to stay future-focused.
We call them EDII’s 4Ts – a framework designed to support organisations to thrive in a fast-changing insurance world, and cultivate a sustainable culture of customer-centricity and innovation.
Trends
Monitoring, understanding and leveraging emerging trends is the heartbeat of innovation. We’re in an era of digital acceleration, marked by rapid technological change, and increasing competition – from incumbents, new entrants, and disrupters. Keeping up to date with industry and external trends is no longer a luxury – it’s a business imperative.
Whether it’s emerging technologies like Generative AI, IoT and Web 3.0, shifting customer needs, or workplace skills and behaviours, having sight of trends and themes is crucial for companies to understand market dynamics and build their innovation strategies to match. It’s about anticipating rather than reacting, helping to shape the future of the market rather than simply following it.
Make understanding the future a key part of your employees’ expectations. Knowledge sharing, regular webinars, interactive presentations, and exposure to different perspectives are essential tools in ensuring everyone is aligned, informed, and prepared to innovate and adapt in a rapidly changing environment.
Techniques
Recognising and implementing forward-looking techniques across all levels of the business is fundamental in embedding a culture of innovation. In an environment where the pace of change is moving fast, techniques that equip specialists to integrate a wider range of skills – helping them add valuable generalist capabilities – become increasingly valuable.
Among these techniques, design thinking emerges as a powerful tool. Design thinking, at its core, champions a customer-centric approach to problem-solving, encouraging a culture that prioritises curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking. These techniques help break down silos and encourage cross-functional collaboration, leading to ideas, behaviours and solutions that are desirable across all areas of the value chain.
Invest in professional development programmes that focus on design thinking and industry-appropriate innovation techniques. This will promote cross-functional collaboration and customer-centric problem-solving to drive long-term mindset change.
Talent
The right people with the right skills are the driving force behind successful innovation, and this is true across every level of the organisation. Innovation needs people who are creative, curious, collaborative, and resilient, as well as knowledgeable and skilled at what they do.
Some of those people might be fresh hires, but many of them – perhaps even the majority – are already within your business. Assessing the potential within your existing teams is a key part of building your innovation strategy.
Adapting existing career pathways and building innovative learning into all roles are fundamental for developing a culture ready to tackle the changes ahead.
Initiate an organisational skills audit to identify innovation potential within your existing teams. Encourage the value of horizontal, as well as vertical, development and adapt career pathways to foster a culture of perpetual learning.
Tenacity
Building and embedding a culture of innovation doesn’t happen overnight. Achieving meaningful results is a long-term commitment that requires tenacity, persistence, determination, and resilience. These traits are essential to navigate the challenges and setbacks that inevitably accompany the innovation process.
Communication is at the heart of achieving tenacity. Understanding the ‘why’ behind their efforts helps people see the bigger picture, feel more engaged, and be invested in the outcome.
Embed a culture of resilience by communicating your vision regularly. Celebrate both success and learning from failure, to foster understanding, acceptance and engagement of the shared goals and long-term journeys.
Empower your team to navigate the rapidly evolving insurance landscape with our Digital Minds programme. Explore hyper-relevant industry trends, design thinking techniques, and innovation strategies; click here to learn more about the upcoming programme, and be part of the journey to transform your team’s capabilities.
