How do you innovate in a market that thinks in decades not years? An Interview with Taylor Perkins, CTO, Slope Software

Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Leadership in Insurance Podcast where this week we are lucky enough to be joined by Taylor Perkins, co-founder and CTO of Slope Software, who offer an actuarial modelling platform that helps insurance companies understand and quantify their risk so that they can make better decisions about their business.   

We had a great conversation this week where we discussed a wide variety of topics such as:  

• How approaching the market with a developed product was a key factor in Slope Software's success   
• However this meant working evenings and weekends  
• What were the unique challenges for Slope Software?  
• Life insurance, 30 year contacts and the challenge of ‘thinking in decades’
• Demonstrating the ROI of a platform  
• Taylor’s background in being outside of insurance and how this brings an innovative perspective  
• Innovation in the insurance industry 
• Innovation vs adoption  
• Increasing innovation on the p&c side  
• The life cycle of insurance contracts  
• How innovation mirrors life cycles  
• The inherent problems in innovation teams 
• The importance of organisation-wide buy-in for successful innovation  
• What were the biggest surprises when entering the insurance industry?  
• Is there an incentive for a profitable, traditional insurance business to change?  
• The danger of being too comfortable in a position and risk-averse  
• The ripple effects of a small mistake 
•  The threat of not embracing new technologies  
• Small constant change as opposed to large upheaval  
• Do you think the tech-side of insurance needs to do something to attract new talent? 
• How fostering and cultivating innovation will attract talent  
• The importance of recruiting people who enjoy solving problems  
• “Business owner or entrepreneur?” 
• Does advanced modelling risk making the current skills of actuaries obsolete? 
• Will actuaries exist in 10 years? 
• The necessary time input to become an actuary, years (7-10 years!) 
• 10000 years to become an expert, 20000 years to become an actuary  
• Technology replaces the junior level roles, not the advanced roles  
• How does this impact the journey and journey of becoming a fully certified actuary? 
• Does embracing technology impact job enjoyment? 
• Slope Software's new funding! Their plans to move upmarket and focusing on enterprise-level clients, build and grow the Slope Software team and expand internationally!  

 Thank you Taylor for your time, it was great to speak to you!      

 This Podcast was brought to you by FinPro, an executive recruitment business that works in the Insurance and Insurtech space      

Our host in FinPro Director, Alex Bond      

Please like and subscribe if you enjoyed this podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.