How
The state of the insurance industry has come under deep
scrutiny, particularly as the pandemic revealed new risks and weaknesses against a backdrop of market volatility. The future of the industry depends upon modern insurance leaders who have the visionary traits to disrupt and innovate within their organizations.
Sometimes leadership sneaks up on us. It starts out with our volunteering on a committee or speaking up at a meeting. Someone may nudge us at first, giving us encouragement. Or perhaps we raise our voice out of frustration or in defiance, challenging conventions, shattering the established way of doing things.
The insurance industry has unique challenges and opportunities. Navigating these well is the key to success in the insurance world. Your team needs great leadership to help them manage these challenges and opportunities. One important aspect of being a good leader is to nurture your team. As their leader, your team looks to you for guidance, strength, motivation, and support.
You essentially take on the parent role for your team, and it is your responsibility to make sure that your team is healthy and happy. A good leader recognizes what makes each team member great. By realizing each member’s strengths, leaders can better organize their team and projects based on each person’s ability.
Innovation is essential to the survival of your insurance business. If
your company doesn’t innovate well, your business will plateau. What’s more, competitors who are innovating will pass you by. Innovation starts at the team level. The more you empower your team to innovate, the more innovative you will become as a company. Fortunately, innovation can be cultivated.
Keeping the company’s overall mission in mind is an essential skill of a good leader. Without this vision, teams can quickly lose their direction and get off course. Seeing the big picture and implementing it into projects helps your team stay in alignment with company goals.
Embracing the journey of the leaders who are enabling novelties in the modern insurance industry with a unique approach while showcasing significant traits, CIOLook features the “ Top 10 InsurTech Influencers to watch in 2023,” who are enabling betterments in the niche.
Flip through the pages and comprehend the leadership traits that are enabling new advancements in today’s insurance industry.
Have a Delightful Read!
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February, 2023
Amir Kabir Partner Amir leads Fintech and Insurtech investing at AV8 and has been one of the earliest investors in the Insurtech space.
Bruce Lucas Founder
AV8 Ventures av8.vc
Slide slideinsurance.com
Andrew Zarkowsky is the Global Technology Industry Practice Lead at The Hartford, with a focus on underwriting execution inclusive of growth, profit and product innovation for the Technology industry.
NRC Health patientwisdom.com
Bruce drives the vision and innovation behind Slide's technology.
Jeremy Leach Founder and Executive Director
Jeremy is recognised as a global expert in mobile financial services with a particular expertise in microinsurance and digital insurance. Inclusivity Solutions inclusivitysolutions.com
Qatar Insurance Group qic-group.com
Lars is an entrepreneur to the bone working on scalable digital business models & innovation.
van
Qatar Insurance Group qic-group.com
Michael is among the first in the industry to achieve Chartered Financial Planner status, and was subsequently awarded Fellowship of the Personal Finance Society.
Qatar Insurance Group qic-group.com
Mr. Ahmed has extensive leading roles with a demonstrated history of guiding and delivering in the business industry.
SOSO CARE sosocare.com
WTW wtwco.com
Nonso is a social entrepreneur with an obsession with excellent ways to bridge the gap in poor healthcare and financing in Africa.
Over five years, Paricia built a highly successful marketing function from the ground up, engaging remote teams in over 20 countries
Patra Corporation patracorp.com
William has an amazing journey with a variety of incredible opportunities to make a difference.
Patricia Antunez Transformation Director William Wagner Vice President Marketing and CEO Michael der Straaten CEO Andrew Zarkowsky Technology Industry Practice Leader Lars Gehrmann, Group Chief Digital Officer Nonso Opurum CEO Mr. Ahmed Zebeib Chief Executive Officer“
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Andrew Zarkowsky
Adaring man might say, ‘What is life without a
little bit of risk?’ A cautious man would call the attitude foolhardy and tempting fate. Neither of them would be right. The truth is that risks are always present in whatever you do and whichever venture you choose. Life is never without risk; you can only reduce it or mitigate it. The best way to do that would be to get a better understanding of the problem and the risks involved.
A big proponent of this methodology – of understanding in depth to reduce or mitigate risk – is Andrew Zarkowsky. A two-decade veteran of the insurance industry, Andrew is the Technology Industry Practice Lead at The Hartford .
He is an expert in what it takes to underwrite technology companies and possesses vast know-how of the role insurance plays in helping technology companies grow. His focus is on underwriting execution inclusive of growth, profit, and product innovation for the technology industry.
The Hartford is a more than two-century-old insurance organization that is widely recognized for its customer service excellence, sustainability practices, trust, and integrity.
Andrew shares the strategies to mitigate risks so customers of The Hartford can achieve more.
From Underwriter to Leader
Andrew was a business and finance major at Boston University. Upon graduation, he went to work in property and casualty insurance. He worked as an underwriter within the technology industry for three years at a different company before moving to The Hartford.
Andrew’s journey at The Hartford began as a property casualty underwriter in the technology practice. It’s evolved to his current role where he’s managing the entire technology industry practice for the company. His career journey with The Hartford has taken him from Boston to Chicago and from underwriter to industry leader. During this time, Andrew also completed his MBA degree at DePaul University.
Andrew’s role is to stay ahead of the technology industry, which is a challenge because it’s a dynamic industry that changes quickly.
“I try to ensure that what we have is a deep understanding of what is a very broad industry that is converging with a lot of other industries,” says Andrew. “As I've grown in my career, I've also had to grow my strategic horizon, making sure that I'm staying ahead of what's coming in the future.”
Compared to the constantly evolving technology industry, the insurance industry can be viewed as steadier and not prone to experiencing much change. As a result, the intermingling of contrasting industries has pressed the insurance industry to keep up.
“Our focus is to keep our knowledge and expertise up to date and even ahead of the technology industry,” says Andrew. “We make sure that we have the appropriate coverages that our clients are going to need, and anticipate what their needs are going to be over the next three to five years.”
We want to see a world where there are fewer losses and fewer injuries. That’s what The Hartford is about, to allow for greater achievement.
To that end, the company spends a lot of time understanding the needs of the industry. What is the need today, and what will be the need down the line in the future? “That’s the real crux to the whole goal,” adds Andrew. They study the industry and the economy overall, which is why The Hartford focuses on industry specialization. While Andrew leads the technology industry practice, the company also specializes in life sciences, real estate, manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and a host of other industry verticals.
This methodology allows the insurance organization to identify new growth opportunities in the market. “Once you understand the industry and you understand the need
and the problem, then you can start lining up the risks,” explains Andrew. “We can then figure out ways to work closely with our trading partners, brokers, and agents so we can help mitigate, eliminate or transfer those risks.”
The objective is always to understand and predict loss, but while knowing a loss is coming is great, how do you prevent it, or how do you mitigate it when it does happen?
The change Andrew would like to see in the industry would be a pivot towards risk mitigation or risk
elimination. He wants to help clients understand risk so they can mitigate it themselves.
While insurance companies would always be present for the risk transfer, Andrew thinks that with advancements in technology and data, it’s possible to help clients reduce and mitigate risk. Ultimately, he’d hope for that to lead to less loss in the overall economy.
“We want to see a world where there are fewer losses and fewer injuries,” says Andrew. “We're trying to get to a point where we're able to help mitigate and eliminate the risk that's going to lead to fewer losses and greater achievement because that's what ultimately is going to help our economy and the world overall.”
The Spectrum of a Risky Future
Andrew knows they still have a long way to go. When he thinks about the future economy, he wonders, what will be the risks? How to accept those risks?
How to reduce or mitigate them? For this, he studies the industries in depth and tries to get ahead of the trends. The question is not only addressing the risks of today but really the risks of tomorrow through risk transfer as well as risk mitigation.
“We’ve been spending a lot of time getting deeper and deeper into specializations and thinking about risk on a spectrum basis,” explains Andrew. “The reality is that most risk comes on a spectrum that’s between low and high and everywhere in the middle. We also need to think more about how we can be ready to handle the lower risk in a faster, easier fashion while being more open to handling the tougher risks for our clients.”
The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., (NYSE: HIG) operates through its subsidiaries, including the underwriting company Hartford Fire insurance Company, under the brand name, The Hartford®, and is headquartered in Hartford, CT. For additional details, please read The Hartford’s legal notice at. www.thehartford.com
We’ve been spending a lot of time getting deeper and deeper into specializations and thinking about risk on a spectrum basis.
Originally trained as an accountant in the UK
focusing on the offshore finance sector, Jeremy Leach went back to school to do a Master’s in International Development. This enabled a shift to a focus on emerging markets with stints at DFID (now UKAid) and a think tank FinMark Trust before drilling down on the insurance sector, which is the financial services vertical he felt was the furthest from the tipping point of the profitable scale.
After leadership roles at Hollard, an international insurer, and BFA Global, a management consulting firm, Jeremy founded Inclusivity Solutions with the aim to take the lessons learnt to drive scale in emerging markets. While bruised from fundraising challenges, starting up a company against dominant brands and challenging conservative thinking—under Jeremy’s leadership as the Founder & Executive Director Inclusivity Solutions reached over 1,4m clients across 6 countries.
Inclusivity Solutions was born out of the need to transform access to insurance in emerging markets where penetration is typically between 2-5% of the adult population.
Jeremy shares, “We do this through providing a worldclass platform supported by expert skills to delight our partners. This reflects in our ‘north star’ where Inclusivity Solutions exists to build a sustainable global business by providing appropriate, affordable, and accessible financial solutions to enable the underserved and vulnerable to manage their risk and well-being and which delight customers and stakeholders, thereby providing responsible returns to shareholders.”
In an interview with CIOLook, Jeremy shares valuable facts highlighting his professional
tenure and his journey in the dynamic InsurTech niche.
Enlighten us on how you have impacted the InsurTech niche through your expertise in the market.
I cannot think of a better way to answer this than to let one of our valued partners answer this on our behalf:
“I had heard about Inclusivity Solutions but had never worked together till I joined my current organization. They are omnipresent in all the touch points of my business, a fact that I attribute to their high-caliber workforce.
They are agile, sensitive, and responsive and have been extremely helpful not only in technology but other aspects of the business. Inclusivity’s 360-degree view of the business is fantastic. Choosing them as a partner is one of the decisions, I will pride myself on, for a very longtime.”
Dennis Victor Wafula, Head, Insurance, and Invest-ments/Airtel
Money/Airtel AfricaDescribe in detail the values and the work culture that drives your organization.
Our team is driven by a desire to transform access to insurance, which is typically poorly trusted and understood, so a passion for impact is critical for us. Equally, impact within the team is hugely important and we are an incredibly diverse team representing 11 nationalities and ensure that we support each other professionally and personally.
Ÿ Since Covid 19, we have also gone completely remote, which the team has delighted in, whilst ensuring we regularly reconnect online or in person.
Ÿ In terms of our values, they encompass the following:
Our team is driven by a desire to transform access to insurance, which is typically poorly trusted and understood, so a passion for impact is critical for us.
Jeremy Leach Founder and Executive Director Inclusivity Solutions
Ÿ We are a global company that believes in consumerfocused, locally rooted solutions that are socially impactful and financially sustainable.
Ÿ We operate with integrity and professionalism. We think deeply, act quickly, work efficiently, and deliver high quality in all we do.
Ÿ We listen to and respect each other, delighting in our unique backgrounds and supporting each other professionally and personally.
Ÿ We take smart risks, innovate, and remain agile to evolve our company and the industry over the long term.
Ÿ We seek out partners who share and support our values. We support their growth, solve their challenges and deliver on their aspirations.
Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in almost every sector. How are you leveraging technological advancements to make your solutions resourceful?
Technology underpins all we do. We are particularly delighted to have launched the Public API to our platform, ASPin, which means any partner has easy access to our end-to-end digital insurance platform and can spin up products with ease.
ASPin supports full omnichannel policy acquisition from basic SMS to WhatsApp chatbots, partner’s apps, as well as call centres and agents right through to paying the claims directly into the account.
Our data warehouse enables partners to leverage machine learning and AI to support segmentation and risk modelling leveraging best practice. Beyond technology, we also support our partners with data analytics, product development and pricing, amongst other capabilities.
What, according to you, could be the next significant change in the InsurTech sector? How is your company preparing to be a part of that change?
We are now in the hype of embedded insurance 2.0 where technology simplifies customers getting access to insurance at the time, they most need it. We have built the capabilities to do this and to delight our partners and end customers.
We expect this to continue to be a focus of the sector, but more importantly, we expect players will need to ensure that customers are better informed and engaged with the insurance offerings; otherwise, we expect a regulatory backlash if regulators find customers do not understand the products, do not know they have them or feel they are being mis-sold.
Over the decades, we have seen this play out and are invested in ensuring clients positively engage with insurance.
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run, and what are your future goals for Inclusivity Solutions?
We see Inclusivity Solutions continuing to innovate and to continue disrupting insurance in emerging markets across continents with the potential to do the same in developed countries when we are ready.
What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the InsurTech sector?
One of our toughest lessons is that, whilst we were built for scale from the start, one needs to be willing to experiment with small players until one gets the model right, even if the economics does not appear right. In that way, Eric Ries’ Lean Start-Up has it right - experiment rapidly until one gets the model right and then is positioned to scale.
As the digital economy continues to mature and
customers grow more tech dependent, “digital” is no longer just the trendy front of a corporation. The move towards digitizing existing industries will only continue to grow. The insurance industry is no different, that’s why long-established companies like QIC are recognizing the need for talent that can come in and drive digital transformation and innovation. That’s the primary role of a Chief Digital Officer (CDO), it’s to combine a digital mindset with existing insurance capabilities that speed up digital transformation. By bringing in teams equipped with skill sets that can innovate towards new digital business models, companies can shift organizational structures, capture new markets and provide better services to their clients and partners while maximizing efficiency gains.
In recent years, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has seen major shifts towards digital insurance by both insurance incumbents and insurtechs, however, compared to other global insurance ecosystems, the region is playing catch up. Although, QIC has been working on digital propositions for the last 10 years, has piloted several product innovations and has one of the highest shares of digital insurance sales in the region, QIC wanted to take the leap into becoming the leading digital insurance company in the region. QIC’s very own QIC Digital Venture Partners (QIC/DVP) is helping to accelerate the ecosystem by building insurtech related ventures, investing in early stage insurtechs and partnering with leading companies that will enter the region. While contributing thought leadership and playing an active part in the MENA Insurtech Association.
In April 2022, QIC, QIC DVP, Google Cloud and Deloitte Digital, together with other partners organized the first MENA Insurtech startup challenge. Inviting startups globally to pitch and compete for the title of best business models and technology. Following active mentoring by internal and external mentors and partners like Prifina, Plug&Play, Qatar Financial Center, Qatar Life & Medical Insurance Company, over 140
Lars Gehrmann is the Chief Digital Officer at Qatar Insurance Group (QIC). His role focuses on leading QIC Digital Venture Partners (DVP), a unit that aims to reshape the digital insurance landscape by building new digital ventures, leveraging exis ng assets, partnering with Big Tech and corporates, and strategically inves ng in high poten al earlystage startups while transforming the way QIC operates digitally. Lars is a board member of Anoud Technologies, a wholly owned IT services subsidiary of QIC Group. He has twenty years of extensive experience in building and managing digital companies in insurance, financing, leasing, automo ve and educa on. He has a passion for new digital business models, pla orms and ecosystem, and is the strategicadvisortoseveraldigitalstartups.
participating startups went through several selection rounds until the top 10 were selected. All were given the opportunity to present at the MENA Insurtech Summit in Doha earlier this year. Yielding co-building and investment opportunities for the startups. Additionally, we are proud to have arranged for four of the top ten startups to present their innovations at Insurtech Connect (ITC) 2022, the world’s largest insurtech event that took place in Las Vegas, USA in September 2022.
Capitalizing on the success of the first challenge and seeing the positive outcome for the MENA insurtech ecosystem, we are now working with partners including the MENA Insurtech Association on the 2023 cycle of the challenge for seed-stage companies that are either currently in the region or aim to build here. The winners of the regional competitions will be present at our next insurtech summit in 2023, providing them with an opportunity for exposure to international insurtech conferences, where QIC occupies a place as a go-to digital insurance partner and thought leader.
Lars Gehrmann
In March 2020 Antares went from an office-based
organisation with managed IT in centralised locations to running over three hundred remote offices around the globe overnight. Although not seamless, the transition to an environment where business was done via virtual meetings, online synchronous collaboration and messaging replacing email, was quickly adopted alongside millions of other companies. The companies that provided the technologies that supported this global change poured money into development of the tools that help us run our business today.
The lessons learnt from that accelerated use of technology are now being applied throughout organisations and form the basis of our digital strategy. Our strategy aims to deliver operational excellence and the adoption of innovation, both through internal change and working with partners to extend our own capabilities. This global revolution focusing on operational excellence is driving the transformation of our internal processes using automation, artificial intelligence and data management technology.
The pace of innovation in our market such as real time flexible products or AI driven claims assessment, present additional opportunities if we can adopt and integrate them into our business efficiently. There is obvious value in using AI to make a claims assessment quickly and accurately, but the full value comes from automatically processing the data from the assessment, carrying out all the fraud checks and making payments for the claim as well as feeding and enhancing our risk and pricing models. This also results in changing the roles of our people to provide management and oversight of these
processes and it is this change which must be managed to truly realise the value of digital transformation.
The ability of our IT functions to quickly integrate new innovations into our IT landscape has several challenges and solutions, both technological and people. By adopting a composite approach to solutions, we can make the most valuable components of our systems modular so they can be reused, as well as investing in API technology to support new services. The customer engagement model is changing, and these technologies will enable new digital products such as claims portals and chatbots that can hook into these modules.
The pace of change and opening of IT services also brings increased cyber risk and this will remain high on the CIO and Board’s agenda for the foreseeable future.
The pandemic also brought about a change in the IT workforce with many experienced IT professionals leaving the workforce at a time when demand is surging. This shortage of skilled IT resources is unlikely to be resolved in the short to medium term so we must look to attract, retain and train our IT teams to support the transformation of our business and we see this as an ongoing challenge.
Ultimately, successful digital transformation is a combination of people, process and technology and we believe this can only be achieved by using a combination of our own people and partnerships with other companies to benefit from their specialist expertise and systems.
Ÿ The digital office has been adopted at an unprecedented rate due to Covid, we’re seeing ten years of evolu on in workplace technology over the last three years.
Ÿ New ways of working digitally with automa on, AI and data management is now driving opera onal excellence.
Ÿ The ability to adopt new innova ons, o en working with partners, into an ever-changing IT landscape demands a new approach to digital transforma on.
Ÿ he pace of change across all industries combined with the drain of experienced IT professionals leaving the workforce throughout Covid makes a rac ng and retaining talent a significant challenge.
Background: QLM Life and Medical Insurance is considered as the largest health insurance company in Qatar and the only specialised company that leads the health insurance sector through its advanced services and flexible insurance programs that suit all segments of society in Qatar.
W e live in a world that has become highly dependent on information technology in management, especially with managing a large volume of data as is the case in health insurance. Therefore, our vision in this field was to develop a system capable of absorbing any volume of data and managing it effectively in the most efficient way possible. This will in turn positively reflect on the speed of responding to the requirements of our customers and the requirements of medical service providers at the same time.
The advancement of technology
benefit both insured members and insurance companies, QLM is no exception. QLM is constantly innovating and growing, we capitalized on the extensive data, experience, and technology advancement to build an outstanding insurtech to guarantee excellence in our services, and at the same time gives us a real time feedback on operations. The
development of our solutions was highly sophisticated as it involved many parties internally as well as externally. We've invested in developing a highly sophisticated solution involving both internal and external parties.
We managed to build a system through an interactive electronic platform that automatically approves without the need for human intervention except in rare cases, which shortens the time for issuing approval to a record time where the patient experiences a seamless process. This electronic platform helps health centers communicate, get the right information, and make the whole transaction an easy journey for both parties. All this is in the interest of the client/patient who will feel that they are receiving prompt and a high standard service.
Today, our systems are all online and fully integrated with healthcare providers inside as well as outside Qatar, the provider can at a fingertip verify eligibility, obtain approval, and submit a claim all online without the need for any direct interaction with our team. The secret behind this is the claims autoapproval/auto-adjudication, our systems are equipped with all medical international coding that are mapped together in the back end of the system. Therefore, any
coding the provider is using is mapped and auto adjudicated in the back end and the decision is communicated to the provider by the system.
The crown jewel of our IT platform is the Artificial intelligence (AI) that we have developed. Underwriting in health insurance is always seen as risky and needs extra attention, our AI module analyzes the data provided by the client and at same time analyzes the existing QLM data measuring behavior, trend, frequency, etc. Thus, suggesting an appropriate premium with prediction of loss ratio based on the suggested premium. Our AI is constantly monitoring behavior of providers in real time and alerting our team of any abnormal behavior that is taking place, it is monitoring the auto-adjudication module and correcting any errors that may exist during the process.
We are constantly evolving and growing as the leading Medical and Life insurer in Qatar, as we rely heavily on tech, we will continue investing where appropriate to maximize the satisfaction of all our partners. In QLM we believe that insurtech is the present and future. We will continue playing our role and assessing the markets worldwide while simultaneously be at the forefront when it comes to tech and for others to follow.
Running a business requires a constant flow of
information within and outside the organization. Effective communication connects leadership with employees, enabling everyone to support core company values and work towards organizational goals.
Successful communication will help reduce email burdens, enhance employee commitment, boost employee productivity, and facilitate interdepartmental relationships. It also reduces employee turnover, improves customer satisfaction and retention, and contributes to a strong company culture.
Effective leaders think analytically about their businesses and those they oversee. They invest the time and effort to clearly understand any outstanding weaknesses, threats, strengths, and opportunities.
This helps them identify how to support the team and help them overcome problems. Great leaders know when to pivot, constantly evaluating their own input to see how it aligns with organizational policy and objectives. Standing out with these exceptional attributes is William Wagner , Vice President of Marketing at Patra Corporation
Under Wagner’s proficient leadership, Patra is a leading provider of technology-enabled services to the insurance industry, serving Retail Agencies, MGAs, Wholesale, and Carrier companies.
In an interview with CIOLook, Wagner shares valuable facts that highlight significant facts that highlight his professional tenure and his journey so far as a proficient leader in the niche.
Below are the excerpts from the interview:
Brief our audience about your journey as a business leader until your current position at your company. What challenges have you had to overcome to reach where you are today?
My professional career journey has been dynamic and across many industry verticals. I was fortunate to start my career as a product manager in the financial services and investment vertical, whereby my projects focused on understanding end-users’ needs. Why would they use our product, how would they use it, and what workflows and behaviours could I influence by designing for optimal end-user satisfaction?
This training made me appreciate the end user and the intense work needed to uncover customers' hidden needs. That led me down the transition path from Product Management toProduct Marketing, bridging the gap between what is designed and built and how the product is positioned to the external market, and eventually transitioning to traditional Marketing where I am today. At Patra, I aim to communicate our company's value to the insurance industry and how partnering with Patra enables growth, drives innovation and digitization, and ensures insurance organizations are future ready.
Tell us something more about your company and its mission and vision.
With a global team of insurance processing experts, we work closely with our clients to leverage technology and human capital to optimize how insurance policies are sold, managed, and supported.
Our vision is to bring economies of scale to our service offerings by driving innovation within every insurance
organization so they can focus on their unique brand experience, customer satisfaction, and corporate profitability.
For the last 17 years, Patra has focused on hiring the best employees from across the US, Canada, Philippines, and India, creating a dynamic, work-fromhome environment, and providing training, guidance, and mentorship to deliver world-class services. Patra was founded on the fundamental principle of "Do The Right Thing;" we do the right thing for our clients and their insureds, our employees and their families, and the communities where we live and work. Honesty, Integrity, and Respect are the three pillars of Patra.
Enlighten us on the impact you have made through your expertise in the market.
I believe that marketing aims to create a narrative that clearly outlines the benefits of working with Patra regarding pain points that insurance organizations feel across different areas of their business.
I intend to showcase how small changes can have an
Our vision is to bring economies of scale to our service offerings by driving innovation within every insurance organization so they can focus on their unique brand experience, their customer satisfaction, and corporate profitability.”
incremental impact on how revenue is derived, how employee satisfaction can be enhanced, and how organizations can leverage our technology insights rather than try to figure out what to do on their own. As a marketer, if I can make the buying decision easy to understand the benefits, then we can bring efficiencies to the insurance ecosystem.
Describe in detail the values and the work culture that drives your organization.
Our culture and values start at the top with our CEO, John Simpson. John's vision for how Patra has grown is grounded in our core values of Honesty, Integrity, and Respect. By applying those values to how we engage each other, our vendors, and our interactions with our clients and prospects.
Over 15 years of being a remote-based company require an extraordinary commitment to being aware of your employees, ensuring they have the tools and skills to accomplish their goals, and always keeping a pulse on their performance. From our Executive Leaders to individual contributors, open dialogue, freedom of expression, and a focus on DE&I ensure everyone is welcomed and heard.
Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in almost every sector. How are you leveraging technological advancements to make your solutions resourceful?
Technology investments and innovation are the nuclei of who Patra is. Early on, we believed technology is useful when combined with human capital. As such, we have invested millions of R&D in addition to growing our Engineering and Product Management teams to bring innovation and digitization to areas of the insurance policy lifecycle where our customers felt the most pain or inefficiencies.
We believe that developing technology without precisely aligning with market needs is foolish. It's a hammer looking for a nail. Instead, we work closely with our 230 customers across over 700 offices to understand trends and common pain points and build solutions to address those pressing needs. This isn't to say we don't look toward market trends to drive our product roadmap, but we look at multiple forces when deciding how best to bring innovation to the market.
What change would you like to bring to the Insurance industry if given a chance?
I'd like to see the broader insurance industry embrace the notion that partnering with a service provider is a net gain for their business and, ultimately, their customers. Partnering with a company to help, automate, and work 24/7 so that your staff can have a quality of life and you can focus on growing your business is healthy.
Consumers' expectations have only increased, and nurturing customer relationships is becoming even more critical so one doesn't become a commodity. To embrace that mentality, organizations need to think, " Where can my resources be deployed in the most efficient manner possible " and that often means outsourcing areas of the business to a service provider.
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run, and what are your future goals for your company?
The insurance market is going through an evolution that has just begun. Decades-old processes and business structures are being challenged by aggressive consumer demands on customer experience and speed to resolution/response.
Because this evolution is in its early years, I want to help drive innovation and transformation in the industry. As part of that, help Patra grows domestically and possibly expand its footprint. Patra is well poised to continue our year-over-year growth as long as we focus on doing what is right for our customers and bringing innovation to the market where customers and prospects need it the most.
What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the insurance sector?
Having a clear understanding and empathy for your prospects is essential. In the insurance industry, we provide a piece of mind, ensuring assets that people covet most – their homes, cars, and businesses–items with a deep emotional connection.
Recognizing the importance of what insurance is will help entrepreneurs understand that our business is mission critical; it isn't a nice to have or add-on; it is 'the' item that ensures business viability and, ultimately, success.
