Insurtechs and Innovation in the Insurance Industry

Professor Dr. Torsten Oletzky, University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, Germany

Insurtech startups are a main driver of digital innovation in the insurance industry. We can observe three basic business models for these insurtechs: full carriers, distributors, and enablers. While the total number of insurtechs has lately not been growing as fast as it did in the early years of the digitisation wave, existing insurtechs have become more professional, they have raised larger amounts of capital and some of them have already gone public. These insurtechs can play a significant role when traditional insurers design their own strategies to address the challenges of digitisation.

Insurtech: From Disruptor to Catalyst?

Dr.‑Ing. Dietmar Kottmann, Partner of Oliver Wyman, Munich, Germany

Since investors realised in mid‑2020 that the COVID‑19 pandemic was accelerating new digital business models, funding activity in insurtechs has been at record levels. This positive investment trend was backed up by positive fundamentals.

An example is a survey we conducted among insurtechs in the DACH (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) region in 2021.

Insurtechs and Insurers: Ensuring a Successful Collaboration

Sarah Salem, Gen Re

Insurtechs have been labelled as disruptors of the insurance industry since their emergence on the scene around 10 years ago. What if insurers could harness the disruptive nature of insurtechs into innovation in their customer journeys? Here we explore what ensures the success of a collaboration between insurers and insurtechs.

The Innovation Mindset – How leaders in the insurance industry can ignite innovation

Ulrich Geuther, executive coach, trainer and consultant, Lisbon, Portugal

In this article, Lisbon-based leadership trainer and coach Ulrich Geuther outlines ways of increasing innovation in companies in the insurance industry.

Innovative mindsets are the key here. It is becoming apparent that senior executives have a new role to play: ensuring that all the mindsets necessary for the organisation’s innovative development are present and able to be fully effective.

Nine Practical Tools to Jumpstart the Innovation Machine of your Team

Oliver Röhrich, management trainer and coach, Lisbon, Portugal

Innovation is an essential factor in advancing your company (as stated in the article of my colleague Ulrich Geuther, see above). While most managers are aware of this, they are also very busy with their operational day-to-day business, which sometimes makes innovation a lower priority for them.

What can you, as a manager, do to make innovation a continuous endeavour for your team, even in this demanding environment? In my work with teams in different industries, I have identified best practices to answer this question. The objective of this article is to provide you with nine practical and simple tools to make innovation a normal and successful habit for your team.