The Qorus-Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards takes pride in celebrating the world’s leading innovators in this field. The award’s ultimate accolade, Global Innovator 2022, recognizes insurance businesses that not only innovate in new and exciting ways, but also through their strategies and daily practices. This year too, definitely discovery It truly embodies what it means to be a global innovator in the insurance industry. Its innovation practices hold exciting lessons for all insurers and related businesses as they navigate changing economic conditions.
Laying the foundation for innovation
Discovery is well known for its shared value model, particularly its Vitality product, which aims to help health or life insurance companies focus on making people healthier and changing their behavior, the better their risk profile. It is built on the idea of changing direction.
Gareth Friedlander, Deputy CEO of Discovery Life, said: This casts real doubt on the concept of risk as a static metric.Rather, risk is greatly influenced by behavior. And 80% of the morbidity in medical risks is caused by factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and diet. 60 for driving Rate of fatal accidents It is the result of action alone. If insurance companies can change customer behavior and help customers make better choices, the risk curve will shift. ”
This core idea of the Vitality Shared Value Model has proven to be powerful and replicable across geographies and industries. By building a business around a clear sense of purpose, continuous innovation, and customer needs, the opportunities for future innovation are endless.
While it is certainly beneficial for insurers to innovate in response to market changes, that should not be the raison d’être of innovation. Friedlander said: Innovation at Discovery is organic rather than event-based or spontaneous. ” This is reflected in a disciplined pace of innovation across the business, with employees from all areas of the business regularly encouraged to contribute their innovation ideas.
Be prepared for every change
Accenture recently released Digital health technology vision for 202297% of healthcare executives believe continued advances in technology are becoming more reliable than economic, political, or social trends in determining their organization’s long-term strategy. In the case of discovery innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic, existing technology and innovation infrastructures faced some unique challenges brought about by the global pandemic and changes in technology usage in the industry. It meant they were in a better position to respond. .
Maximum payback for Discovery vaccinations A great example of this is the product that won a Silver Award in the Social, Sustainable and Responsible categories. Although conceived in response to global events, this innovation was made possible by Discovery’s existing shared value model and innovation infrastructure. “This initiative was conceived in the context of slow vaccine rollout and growing vaccine hesitancy due to a lack of vaccine awareness and education.As a company, we are committed to driving action. We felt a social responsibility to quickly increase vaccination rates. This social responsibility aligns perfectly with our business goals, dramatically reducing risk and rewarding people for getting vaccinated. “We were able to do that,” Friedlander said.
Vaccination Max PayBack guarantees a cash refund of up to 100% of the first year’s premium if customers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in support of South Africa’s vaccination program and leverage a shared value model to ultimately return up to R182 million in premiums. Enhances underwriting capacity for the first policy year.
He added: “When we started this effort, we had to move quickly and find solutions without the usual checks on the market. Even if we didn’t know much about quantum yet, it was We felt it was good for us, good for society, and good for our customers.” It turns out they were right. Customer acceptance has been very positive, with 80% fully vaccinated, a figure higher than most developed countries.
Shared Value – What the Data Shows
As a life insurance company operating through the storm of a pandemic, it was natural for Discovery to focus wholeheartedly on innovations that protect customers from risk and help them weather its impact.products such as Discovery Hospital at Home This gives customers access to world-class telemedicine capabilities, digital tools for members and physicians, and remote monitoring devices to track clinical progress in real-time and provide faster care. Ta. Discovery Strength in Unity supports South Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination program and he has established nine vaccination sites to supplement capacity.
Before the pandemic, Discovery recognized that incentivizing customers could help reduce health risks associated with behaviors within their control. However, this has not been widely applied in cases of large-scale infectious diseases. What they found is that it may be even more powerful in the context of COVID-19.
“When COVID-19 emerged, it was a new risk that no one had data on and people were scrambling to understand,” Friedlander said. With one of the largest integrated data sets, our actuaries were able to take on this challenge and analyze the triggers and measures needed to change mortality rates for better outcomes throughout the pandemic. It was a priority for us to get our hands dirty with data.”
Welfare as part of a broader ESG agenda
At the heart of Discovery’s innovations is the idea of what it means to be healthy, both as individuals and as a society. This well-being extends not only to healthcare, but also to finance, infrastructure, and the environment. Other innovations won by Discovery at the Qorus Innovation in Insurance Awards include: healthy future calculator, motion alert and pothole patrol. The Healthy Futures calculator analyzes each customer’s unique biometrics to provide a basic overview of their health status (including predicted lifespan and healthspan) and provides science-based tools to improve both measures. We provide personalized recommendations and insights. Motion Alert uses telematics technology to detect when a vehicle may be stolen, alert the owner, and automatically initiate vehicle recovery services. Pothole Patrol has partnered with Dialdirect Insurance and the City of Johannesburg to manage and repair potholes using a pothole reporting app to improve road safety. Each of these innovations not only enables Discovery’s customers to live improved lives and make better, more informed decisions about various aspects of their benefits, but also creates more value for society as a whole. Helpful.
what’s next
Looking to the future, Discovery’s commitment to innovation shows no signs of slowing. “We have successfully created a disruptive mindset across our business. Innovation is at the heart of our business and with continued and dedicated support from our leadership team, we have institutionalized it across all touchpoints. ” said Friedlander.
In the near future, Discovery will continue to focus on technology and personalization. Friedlander added: “Technology continues to be a great enabler for collecting data on behavior change. As humans, we need feedback to change our behavior, and wearable devices can provide this rich and relevant data in real time. When combined with our extensive insights into health data and trends, the impact is powerful.
People have different motivations, so we will continue to strive to design products that are tailored to each customer. ”
The discovery is an example of what can be achieved when innovation is consistently and purposefully imagined, practiced and applied across the insurance business. Congratulations to them on being named his 2022 Innovator of the Year.
Get the latest insurance industry insights, news and research delivered straight to your inbox.
