At DIA Amsterdam 2022, DIA Partner EY presented the key trends shaping the next wave of insurance and the opportunities for insurers to innovate, lead and grow. Preetham Peddanagari, Partner at EY, and Roy Jubraj, Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer at esure, shared the stage to discuss the future of the industry and esure’s response to key trends.

The insurance industry has become a highly dynamic and continually disruptive space, responding swiftly to the developments of the past few years.

There are a multitude of powerful (and turbulent) trends at play – some industry specific, others universal to financial services – driving the next wave of insurance and how insurers can innovate, lead and grow. These trends present both challenges and compelling opportunities for insurers to differentiate and succeed in the market. In EY’s two previous editorials, EY focused on four of the biggest megatrends shaping the industry and what insurers need to do to mitigate the risks and maximise the opportunities. In this editorial EY talks to Roy Jubraj, Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer at esure, to discuss how esure is preempting and responding to the market.

Accelerated Digitisation – not just doing digital but being digital

What approach did esure take to digital transformation and customer centricity? What changes did you make strategically and operationally to make this happen?

“At the start of our journey, we set out a strategy, vision and purpose –to fix insurance for good– that the whole organisation can understand, back and execute against. Whilst our strategic objectives have evolved, the core of our strategic outcomes have remained steadfast. We decided to start by identifying customer pain points across the full insurance value chain and assessing our options to resolve.

We were allowed to support those options by designing and building an architecture “green-field”, with a digital mindset and digital experiences at the heart, and without constraints from “legacy” … – cloud first, and micro-services based. Legacy has a role to play too, pushing us to be as creative as possible in terms of designing a new target state and creating an environment that can evolve more effectively (and at a lower cost base).

We also focus on early deployments and then evolve rather than perfecting designs or build activities (a true test & learn approach). We learn more and quickly that way.”

Ecosystems & open insurance: a new, customer-driven basis of competition

How is esure dealing with the evolving ecosystem environment? Where does it all fit into esure’s strategy?

“This is an area we are currently spending some time on – how do we take advantage of the capabilities we are building, what does that mean in terms of accelerating our wider relationships and partnerships, and how do we think about diversifying our growth engines (including channel strategy) – lots of interesting plays and we’re not short of ideas.

What is clear is data and insights will be key – it will be interesting to see what kind of insights on additional value and additional channel opportunities we will be able to generate.

Having a flexible micro-services architecture to integrate with other partners and ecosystems will be key – speed, low cost, and low friction is critical for success. There are several insurers already in active exploration of this space; first-mover advantage will be interesting to monitor.

Our core propositions and ability to expand to additional services will be important in terms of how we think through our future roadmap.  Specifically, exploiting some emerging trends in the micro-offerings to drive growth with existing and new partners.”

Workforce transformation: the promise of a human-centred, tech-enabled enterprise

What are some considerations or challenges that esure have faced around workforce management and the changes we now see in that space?

“Like the rest of the industry (and other employers in financial services and beyond), we have had to face the same talent market and workforce shifts driven by the recent global events, including the likely macro-issues of a potential recession, and the implications of what all that may mean for an employer of the future.

We are exploring this from a few fronts – skills, capabilities, operating model, how we can generate interest in esure in various talent pools. In addition, where we have invested, how do we retain (especially where your investment becomes a demanding commodity in the market).

We continue to focus on ensuring people are doing interesting things, continuously learning and growing, and being rewarded fairly. That will continue to be a challenge for us and others competing for market leading talent.

Our transformation programme is a People and Operating Model transformation at similar emphasis to that of a Technology set of enablers. They play an equally important role in how we design the future of esure.  We still have work to do in this space but making progress.”

Sustainability: a historic opportunity to lead, innovate and grow purposefully

How is esure responding to the emerging environmental, social and governance pressures and opportunities? What has your progress been in this space to date?

“We have a few areas we are exploring as part of our “Driving for Good” agenda – we are aligning and committing to the ABI targets set out for the sector (Net Zero for scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2025; 50% reduction in scope 3 emissions by 2030; and net zero across scope 1,2, & 3 by 2050). 

As part of that, we have kicked off and made progress on a number of prioritised activities:

• We have a defined EV strategy aimed at better supporting those customers considering switching away from combustion engines
• We have chosen to offset our Scope 1&2 emissions, as we continue to focus on driving emissions reductions
• We have partnered with The Conservation Volunteers to facilitate UK tree planting
• Wherever we’re able to, we will look to support the circular economy, recycling and repairing as opposed to replacing, where appropriate to do so
• We support collaboration and transparent disclosure through our membership of ClimateWise, a global body of leading insurers

Additionally, we are defining a set of products, product features and propositions that drive our sustainability agenda in addition to increased investment over the next few years ahead.”

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