What—Me? Hire a Coach?

Performance coaching continues to grow in popularity. As businesses and organizations strive for the competitive edge, it makes sense to make sure that the people leading are at the top of their ...

Diverse Strategies Lure Innovators to Insurance Players

Innovation within insurance companies requires strategy to make things happen. And strategy is key to recruiting and retaining talent with the skills needed to innovate. What strategies are insurers ...

The Talent Gap Opportunity

There surely is a talent gap in the insurance industry, as direct industry competitors and companies in non-insurance sectors vie to bring on—and keep—people with technology and change management ...

Managing Innovation Using a Managing General Agent

Digital disruption has reached the commercial insurance industry. Digital technologies are being harnessed in new ways that fundamentally alter value propositions and enable new business models. Many ...

'Underwriting by Google' Leads to Wrong Answers on Autism Drivers

A chief underwriting officer of one of the largest P/C insurers once said to us, "I don't know what the next asbestos will be, but it will be whatever causes autism." The rate of autism spectrum ...

About Church Mutual's Sensor Technology Program

In 2017, Church Mutual Insurance Company was recognized for its Sensor Technology program with the "Award in Innovation" by the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies and by Celent with a ...

About Celent Model Insurers

Celent Model Insurer is awarded for best practices of technology usage in different areas critical to success in insurance and is the main award that an insurance carrier can receive from Celent. It ...

Storytelling Is a Key Soft Influencing Skill, Says UK Consultant, Coach and Storyteller

While everyone has a story to tell, many people fail to realize just how interesting they are. They simply need to learn to tap into their life experiences—and sometimes a coach can help them pry ...

Changing Cultures: The Decade of Insurance CEOs

According to Jonathan Kalman, a founding partner of Eos Venture Fund, "When investors look at an insurer, they will increasingly look at the quality of the leadership and assess whether truly they ...

About Guy Russ

Guy A. Russ, MBA, CPCU, ARM, is Assistant Vice President-Risk Control for Church Mutual. Although he officially joined Church Mutual in August 2012 as director in the carrier's administration ...

Putting Insurer Innovation Under the Rating Agency Microscope

Underway for some time now, the disruption of the insurance industry has moved into a new phase, following the announcement by A.M. Best that it may soon begin scoring insurers' innovation efforts. ...

How a Wisconsin Mutual Insurer Became a Model Innovator

The most innovative ideas in the insurance industry don't always come from global mega insurers with large teams of technology experts that spend all their time devoted to imagining new ways of doing ...

Design and Architectural Transformation at Zurich North America and CNA

Zurich North America and CNA have at least one thing in common: Within the last few years, they shed their old, outdated headquarters and redesigned completely new spaces from the ground up. They ...

Addressing Unmet Needs: How The Co-operators Is Fulfilling Its Mission With an Innovative Business Model

In Canada, The Co-operators is staying true to a 74-year-old mission in an innovative way, which involves teaming up with a three-year-old InsurTech. "Our mission is to provide financial security and ...

Is Insurance Innovation Disruptive Enough?

Less than 10 percent of insurance carriers responding to a recent survey said they spend more than half their time on "disruptive innovation"—and that 10 percent figure has stayed roughly the same ...

How P/C Carriers Spark Imagination In Their Workforces

Insurance carrier and InsurTech executives asked how they spark imagination in their workforces say culture is the anchor. Strategies that include putting Innovation Champions inside the business, ...

Understanding Innovators: How to Motivate New Product Development and 'Explosive Growth'

The former head of a global life reinsurer's innovation studio has worked in locations as far apart as Singapore and Toronto. But if you want to hear what impresses him these days, steer the ...

Phase Two of Insurance Innovation: Exploring 'How-To' Questions

When Celent's Michael Fitzgerald started asking carrier executives how important innovation was to their business strategies back in 2013, 30-40 percent would say it was "somewhat important" rather ...

Eos Venture Partners: Founders and Investments

Eos Venture Partners is a strategic venture capital fund focused on insurance with operations in London, Philadelphia, Paris, Munich, Tel Aviv and Hong Kong. Eos invests in early and growth-stage ...

Small Biz Success Will Come From Human-Centered Design, Says Hartford Exec

With a team of less than a dozen today, The Hartford's Small Business Innovation Lab in New York City may not seem fully staffed to bring about the changes its leader envisions for the customers his ...

Carrier Management Q&A: Hiring and Managing Talent to Spark Imagination

While technology is becoming more affordable, an innovation ingredient that some P/C insurers and reinsurers lack is imagination, according to an industry analyst. Creativity starts with human ...

New York Reigns as InsurTech Capital of the World—for Now

A new analysis puts New York City at the center of the InsurTech universe, leading other cities around the globe on one measure of supremacy and gaining ground on another. The analysis provided ...

About Church Mutual

Church Mutual is the largest insurer of religious institutions in the country, with a history dating back more than 120 years. The company insures houses of worship, human services organizations, ...

VC Bets on InsurTechs in a World Where Few Will Survive

With 20 years of experience as a professional venture capital investor on his resume, Jonathan Kalman seems well positioned to deliver an expert opinion on the likely forthcoming failure rate of ...

Executive Viewpoints: Getting the Most From a Mentor

When QBE North America Chief Operating Officer Daniel Franzetti reached out to an executive for some advice early in his career, he didn't get what he expected. In fact, the would-be mentor's ...

'New Recipe' Could Make Innovation Easier

Two years ago, when Michael Fitzgerald, a senior analyst at Celent, was interviewing Tim Attia, the CEO of Slice Labs, Fitzgerald asked Attia how much it cost to launch the InsurTech's first product. ...