The Leadership in Insurance Podcast - Insurtech & Innovation

In today's episode, we are joined by the brilliant Dickie Whitaker Dickie has a portfolio of businesses and ventures he is involved with but in this episode, we focussed on his work with Oasis Loss Modelling FrameworkIn this episode we talk about:  The reason to start a business - find a problem large enough to solve that people will pay for it  Why "we have always done it this way" is the very reason to change "that way"  How important diversity - in all forms, create brilliant teams  How startup teams are not created equal - and how that's good.   Why team structures should be fluid  European vs US start-up psychology (Huge sweeping generalization warning!)   What does innovation mean?   We hear why Dickie is uncomfortable about Innovation teams in companies  Why culture is everything and why we can be so bad at articulating it within Insurance  Why "work hard, play hard" needs to be replaced with "work smart, play......how you like!"  The pandemic has shone a light on the "last person in the office" culture of office work  The importance of collaboration in the industry to innovation Collaboration starts with trust  The role of insurance in society and its unique position to impact society  Collaboration can't just is volunteers it needs rigour and structure and the best talent!  The best people don't always or don't often volunteer! (Open goal for a recruitment professional!)  The benefit of blissful ignorance in building anything  The importance of looking forward as opposed to looking back   Thanks to Dickie for being a great guest - a really enjoyable discussion.This podcast was brought to you by FinPro​​ an executive recruitment business that works in the Insurance and Instech space   Our host is FinPro Director, Alex Bond  Please like and subscribe if you enjoyed this podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's episode, I was joined by Frank Perkins who is CEO of INARI.IO INARI.IO is an Instech operating out of Barcelona. They offer a next-generation insurance platform, they digitize and virtualize the different things that happen in the life cycle of risk.   In this episode we discuss Startups are not for everyone - creativity is as important as hard work  How the people that join at inception may not be the people to necessarily take you to completion  "Is the juice worth the squeeze" Insurance is big enough to have many problems to solve but is it a big enough issue  Insurers cannot tackle small problems - Instechs can  Innovation can be any change that creates value  The insurance culture of the fast follower can inhibit innovation   Fresh eyes to insurance are important but regulation requires insider knowledge  We should always be asking how change or innovation impacts the customers  We need to tackle each point of innovation to make things better in the aggregate for the commercial customer  Restrictions of regulated businesses and the MVP tech model   Insurance isn't broken   Connected technology is key to the future success of insurance  How connectivity between technologies is key to progress and also how consumers will judge tech  Buy vs make - the shift of mindset over time - integrate vs make job roles in insurers  Cost vs Risk with buying or making tech   Teams are built on skill, luck, and serendipity  The best definition of Innovation so far - "slightly rounder wheels"   Thanks to Frank for being a great guest - I mention the Star Wars background - you can see this on the YouTube channel so go check it out.This podcast was brought to you by FinPro​​ an executive recruitment business that works in the Insurance and Instech space   Our host is FinPro Director, Alex Bond. Please like and subscribe if you enjoyed this podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the latest episode of the leadership in Insurance Podcast, we were lucky to be joined by Antonin de BenoistAntonin is the COO and Co-Founder of Allphins a SaaS analytics and exposure management tool for the insurance industry  In this episode we talked about:   Antonin's entry into the insurance world from the world of finance  How do Co-founders decide who takes what role? COO or CEO?   Station F Paris incubator campus set up   How important start-up "campus" ecosystems are for new businesses for visibility  Bootstrapping vs external capital raising - why do it?  Benefits of running lean How working on Oil and Gas projects gave visibility of how insurers were underutilizing their data  The importance of Insurance companies knowing what they don't know Impact of theLloyd's lab - the importance of being able to ask the stupid question  Culture of insurance and how positive it is towards a new start-up  The importance of natural language processing to enabling AI in insurance  How AI isn't replacing underwriting its enabling better decisions  The Lloyd's lab experience and how it isn't your typical incubator - it's much more practical  What was surprising about Lloyd's as a market to someone who was from outside the market  The sales cycle challenge for start-ups: long, slow does not help with cash flow  What they learned in the energy sector and how it might apply to other insurance lines  Impact of awards on the visibility to investment capital  The drain on resources of a small when trying to raise investment  Impact of the pandemic on Allphins growth and development  The technological debt built by the pandemic and the opportunity for Instech businesses  Thank you so much to Antonin for being a great guest and spending time with me in a very busy year. Congratulations to Allphins on their success to date and we look forward to seeing what they achieve in 2021.  This podcast was brought to you by FinPro ​ an executive recruitment business that works in the Insurance and Instech space   Our host is FinPro Director, Alex BondPlease like and subscribe if you enjoyed this podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the latest episode of the Leadership in Insurance podcast I was lucky to be joined by Paul Prendergast.  Paul is the CEO and founder of Blink Parametric.  Blink is a delivery platform that allows insurance industry partners to create parametric solutions.  In this wide-reaching conversation we talked about:   Why Blink runs towards the "fires" solving solutions  How parametric solutions reduce the unit cost of insurance  Embracing technology to give greater visibility of risk  How starting with the end customer can be the wrong approach - blink start with the underwriter  Insurance as a social good - we sometimes forget that  Why the MVP (minimum viable product) cant work in the insurance space  All businesses as technology companies  Despite frustration with the speed of change, there is a huge passion, intellectual capacity, and scale in the insurance industry  The secret sauce in startups - complimentary teams - Tech is key but it must have sales  Why sales is such a dirty word in the technology space  How attitudes of successful  Instech startups in 2021 are different to 5 years ago - less adversarial Impact of social media on insurance   Insurance is cool - Insuring Elon Musks' rocket!  New entrants to insurance don't grow the market unless they solve a new problem or offer a different solution Innovation is about culture, not projects and process  How the size of the team impacts innovation  What's to stop insurers from being the AWS of insurance platforms  Technology first - how incumbents are held back by required regulatory technology changes  Innovation in insurance comes from unexpected places and so much more.  Thanks to Paul for being a great guest - I probably had 4 people tell me I had to Paul on the podcast as he is a true innovator and forward-thinking tech and insurance entrepreneur and he didn't disappoint.   This podcast was brought to you by FinPro an executive recruitment business that works in the Insurance and Instech space   Our host is FinPro Director, Alex Bond  Please like and subscribe if you enjoyed this podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the latest edition of the leadership in Insurance podcast with Nik SuhrNik is the CEO and founder of Kasko Kasko is a business that provides Insurtech as a service. Kasko principally works with Insurance and digital businesses to help them create digital insurance products or services.  In this episode we talked about:   Insurtech as a service  What is an Insurance "product"  The technical debt in the insurance space created by COVID19  How innovation can be an excuse for action  How innovation must have a measurable ROI Insurance is a fast follower business   How Intrapreneurship is better than innovation as it implies responsibility  Why make or buy is a meaningless argument  How legacy needs to be taken off the backs of innovation efforts to make those efforts successful  Why most innovation labs have failed against expectation  Acknowledging that consulting is easier than doing  Working out which data points to listen to Innovation can be toxic if not validated  Value means someone wants to pay for it!  Insurance: is it a capacity play vs technology play  Insurtech cant get away from underwriting discipline   How it may look when Amazon enters the insurance market and much more - this was a really enjoyable podcast and Nik was great fun, not afraid to tackle some issues that often get missed.  This podcast was brought to you by FinPro an executive recruitment business that works in the Insurance and Instech space   Our host is FinPro Director, Alex Bond Please like and subscribe if you enjoyed this podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first podcast of the year, we get stuck into all things AI and all things claims by speaking to the team from Tautona AI in South Africa I have a bit of a soft spot for claims as it is where I joined the insurance industry many moons ago.  This was a fun conversation with the first guest pairing as I was joined by both: Philip Cooper and John Holdsworth  We covered lots of ground and also had the first guest screen share (well played John)   We talked about:   How natural language processing was the evolutionary step required to make AI in claims possible   How AI is a tool for claim professional, not a replacement  Artificial intelligence in claims is a route to fairness for both insured and the insurer  AI as not just a cost but an offering of better service in claims Claims as a differentiator  The different challenges faced in different geographic insurance markets to the claims process  The value of Lloyd's lab experience and the power of the "alumni" badge to open doors  Why focus on claims when applying AI techniques  Why claims professionals get frustrated and how AI may help them be happier in their work  The under-representation of claims professionals in the board room  How new entrants are making claims the corner-stone of their offering  The Psychology of insurance buyers How we set the rules - do one-click purchases mean we should offer one-click claims?  Faux-mation and the dangers of applying this to claims and obviously much more in-between including the first (unbelievably) postman interruption during the recording!  This podcast was brought to you by FinPro an executive recruitment business that works in the Insurance and Instech space   Our host is FinPro Director, Alex Bond  Please like and subscribe if you enjoyed this podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 10 of the Leadership in Insurance Podcast.  In this episode, we are joined by Bob Frady of Hazard Hub  Hazard Hub is a 3rd party data supplier that boasts the most comprehensive property data ever assembled for the insurance industry and works with the industry and helps them to better understand their risk   Bob is a really interesting and engaging guy it was a pleasure to spend some time talking to him, we met through his involvement in Lloyd's lab. In this conversation we talk about:   Data quality and data skill within the insurance industry  The difficulty of obtaining and accessing the right data Data efficiency and using data to distribute labour   How ideas are free but that's the easy part  The importance of end-user feedback early on and the benefits of MVP  How VC money can be easier to get with an idea than actual revenue  The importance of sharing ideas and not being too protective  The slow sales cycle of the insurance market - you need the money or the stomach for the long haul  Use of data analysis after the fact - the lunacy of that process!  What the data says about rate rises - it isn't enough!  The social dilemma around tailored pricing - people can be priced out  The importance of asking the right questions   This podcast was brought to you by FinPro an executive recruitment business that works in the Insurance and Instech space   Our host is FinPro Director, Alex Bond Please like and subscribe if you enjoyed this podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the latest edition of The Leadership in Insurance Podcast in this episode we were lucky enough to be joined by John McClelland of MiBroker  MiBroker is an on-demand insurance product for the solopreneur market place utilising technology to buy insurance as you need it.   In this conversation we talk cover a range of topics to include:  Learning new skills outside of insurance led to opportunities within Insurance The rise in on-demand insurance Customer demand being the "right way" to build insurance businesses How consumer journey in any industry is viewed via personal buying experiences and how commercial experiences don't seem to catch up Why we won't see true disruption in insurance How innovation should bring in new business to the insurance market not simply carve profit from existing markets The short term view of insurers and how it can sometimes contradict the willingness to innovation  Value of Lloyd's Lab and collaboration with experts in digital insurance The start-up scene in Canada and virtual meeting burn out  The benefits of virtual meeting and the one to one environment - how it drives efficiency The informal nature of face to face meeting and how we lose opportunities in virtual rooms Businesses growing in the "new normal" by adapting and evolving their service   Thanks once again to John for being part of the LiiP podcast and we look forward to watching his journey  This podcast was brought to you by FinPro an executive recruitment business that works in the Insurance and Instech space   Our host is FinPro Director, Alex Bond Please like and subscribe if you enjoyed this podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the latest edition of the Leadership in Insurance Podcast (The LiiP). In this episode, we were joined by the brilliant Michael Crawford Michael is the CEO and Co-Founder of Describe Data which uses AI and unique data sets to help insurance businesses make better sense of data and write more profitable portfolios.  In this conversation we talk about:  The Lloyd’s Lab experience – how it evolved and how Describe Data might not now get in The importance of mentors How to productize an idea How feedback refines and defines the product The cultural shift in Insurance needed to adopt a product mindset How business mistakes become your real-world MBA Bootstrapping a good business lesson? Importance of speed in product development The gap in the market vs Market in the gap Smart money vs any money Timing of investment How you need to “give” as much as you take from your networking community Importance of having defined roles in the start-up team Healthy debate and its importance to C-founder relationships How Describe Data came out stronger from lockdown AI and its application to insurance Does Insurance need ML? Over expectation of technology from the incumbent industry Scaling technology solutions? Are the wins big enough? Is long term innovation possible in publicly traded businesses? Do we have the right leaders for innovation? Maturing ideas in Instech  So we covered a LOT of ground. This was great fun to record, Michael is a great guy and a good guest. This is a fantastic podcast for people interested in tech/insurance and entrepreneurship.  This podcast was brought to you by FinPro an executive recruitment business that works in the Insurance and Instech space   Our host is FinPro Director, Alex Bond Please like and subscribe if you enjoyed this podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Leadership in Insurance Podcast (The LiiP). This is a brilliant chat with David Hughes   https://www.linkedin.com/in/dapahughes/ David is CEO and Founder of Mulberry Risk which is an Analytics and Actuarial Consultancy to the MGA space  https://www.mulberryrisk.com/ David was very open and honest as a guest - even sharing us the secret of what he was hiding in the background of his recording!  In this we talk about:   His professional rugby career - ditching this for life as a pensions actuary  Getting early inspiration from working with legendary Insurance entrepreneur John Charman  How simple it should be to keep people happy  How the alumni of some successful businesses have an oversized impact on the insurance business   Importance of stepping back to go forward   People as catalysts in your career  How important speed is to innovation  The appeal of the MGA market in its entrepreneurial  Risk of a rate rise to the MGA model  The reputation of the MGA in the mind of underwriters  Importance of making your capital fungible for a capacity provider  MGA vs MGU - American carrier relationships vs UK carrier relationships   Flexibility in MGA model thrived in a lockdown environment  What makes a successful Insurtech?   Simplicity the key to successful insurance solutions    How great businesses come out of the customer journey and customer focus  Is your niche big enough for the investment?   And much more in between.  This I a really interesting chat with an engaging founder with a great business concept.  If you want to find out more about me: Alex Bond you can check me out on Linkedin  https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexbondf...  FinPro is a talent consultancy to the Insurance, Reinsurance and Insuretech markets on a global basis, for more information visit our website  https://www.wearefinpro.com/ Look out for more episodes coming soon and please like and subscribe it really helps the channel out! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.