Written by Philippe18 May 2022

Are you embracing new ways of working?

  

– Copenhagen, 1999 : Starting at Ernst and Young Consulting!

 My first day as a very fresh consultant: nobody there to welcome and lead me in this new, intimidating adventure. But something blew my mind, on that day. I received 3 things: a laptop, a mobile phone and a corporate credit card so that I could work on projects in Oslo, London or Tokyo. Already back at that time, I discovered a seamless way of working.  

  

– Hong Kong, 2014 : Clients and video conference…

Fast-forward 15 years, I am the co-founder of an edtech startup in Hong Kong. Our team members are located in different countries around the world. We are a “digital-first” company and work together mostly online via video conferences.  

After a lot of effort, our team finally manages to line up meetings with one of the world’s most-known luxury watch companies as well as one of the largest insurance companies. We are very excited to present our innovative products to them! 

Their answer: “A video conference? No, this is absolutely impossible. We cannot and are not allowed to use video conferences with external companies! You need to fly in to our Headquarters in Switzerland” 

We still got many such answers until 2019.  

Then, something big happened and gave an incredible boost to digitisation…  

     

– May 18, 2022 : Radical change

Fanny Guinochet, a French journalist I appreciate, explains that 78% of executives (in France) are happy to work remotely. They even envision to work 100% remotely within the next 10 years. 10% of them even think that the “office” will fully disappear! 

Executives want to be autonomous, flexible and organise their day-to-day activities as they see fit. They also want to see purpose in their lives and work for companies that are socially responsible. These are also the values of a large group in our society: the Millennials! 

   

#innovation #disruption #newwaysofworking #climatechange #sustainability #Millennials #digitisation #entrepreneurship 

 
 

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Written by Philippe30 March 2022

Can you work without a computer? 

Maybe you have seen the movie “Minority Report”, where the hero uses a gesture-based interface. In the coming years, we will probably work with 3D glasses to achieve something similar. 

Our company helps companies in the insurance industry create their “future of education.” Therefore, we are always looking for better ways to work and teach thanks to new technologies. 

A typical workday for me looks like this: I work on various projects via video conferencing with colleagues and clients around the world, read/write articles, write emails, and watch videos about the latest technologies, educational concepts, and the insurance industry. 
In short, I no longer do IT development or database management, so I don’t really need a powerful computer anymore.
 
So, for some time now, I’ve wondered if I could try working with just a tablet and some noise-canceling earbuds. Two months ago I took the plunge, bought a tablet and gave up my laptop to work exclusively with it. It’s been an interesting experience. Although it was a little bit unsettling at first because I had to change my habits, it got much better and even opened up more productive ways of working. For example, I usually like to work on paper to draw concepts and brainstorm. Now I can draw and collaborate on online whiteboards. 

I’ve found that I still need my computer from time to time: mostly to access the Metaverse, our virtual worlds. The rest of the time I can work on my tablet!

This video shows that we need fewer and fewer tools to work, as they are replaced by one.

What about you? Do you already work with a tablet or would you consider doing so?   

 

 

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Written by Philippe22 March 2021

Traditional Insurance Companies moving to 100% remote initiatives.

Author: Juan D’Alessandro

Spain is used to long working days. It’s normal for employees to start at 9 or 9.30 and finish around 20:00 – It does include a nice lunch break from 13:30 to 15:00 though. This also applies to the insurance industry there of course.  

Today, I would like to speak about Liberty in Spain. As you know, Liberty is a traditional US insurance company. Not exactly a startup! They have a very long-standing experience in the industry and could be considered quite conservative.  

Now, things might be on their way to change. Indeed, Liberty Seguros (Liberty in Spain) will allow its 2,000 employees in Europe to telecommute permanently. They are investing heavily on technology to adapt to the new normal and improve their employee’s experience. This will allow their workforce to become ‘digital nomads’ around Spain. You can expect to hear about engagement and training platforms that they will be deploying to address their new needs. 

However, some senior managers around the world still doubt the remote working model. It is a great model, but it is not for everyone. 

At INGAGE, we have been a ‘digital-first’ company from the start. It is in our DNA. We help our clients digitize their training, their academies. We address their needs to generate content in a very dynamic way that will be available on demand for their employees, clients and salesforce. We look forward to seeing Liberty Spain’s result at the end of the year. 

Source (in Spanish): https://elpais.com/economia/2021-03-11/liberty-seguros-permitira-a-sus-2000-empleados-en-europa-teletrabajar-permanentemente.html 

 

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Written by Philippe19 February 2021

New trends in tourism – locals and digital nomads

Guest Author: Marija Klisura


You may have heard a lot about topics on how to make tourists love your country more. But today I’ll talk about something different, which is, how tourists help ‘me’ to love my country more?



A new trend is rising in tourism

We are witnessing a change in tourism trends – mass tourism vs slow tourism (e.g. digital nomad type of tourism). In Croatia, island hopping was very popular for the last few years. Tourists would land in Split and spend one to two days in each city or island till they reached Dubrovnik. Their holidays would pass very hectically and be rich in touristic content.
Now with rising security measures, it is more complicated to travel so you cherish your time at each location even more. When you stay at one place long enough to start recognizing local people, when you find your favourite spot on the beach or best spot for coffee, you begin to identify with your destination. 

Now you see how mass tourism has had a bad influence – bringing mostly consumers and a lot of pressure on the environment. That said, the new trend of tourists who stay longer in one place – that is their ‘’home’’ for the moment – goes hand in hand with rethinking the responsibility we all have to make our home sustainable for generations of local and tourists to come.



The positive aspects of the new trend

My perception of tourism is dual: the first point of view is as a small business owner who depends on tourism and its economy; the second point of view is as a landscape architect, looking out for the preservation of our natural resources and saving small-town identity – ”Genius loci”.

I feel that I have insider info from both sides that can actually be used for changes on a small-scale along with long-term big effectivity.

I’m living partly in Split now, a small Dalmatian town that had experienced a touristic boom over the last few years. That makes me feel partly like a tourist in my own country. With COVID, Split has become a go-to place for Digital nomads from all over the world and some of them I befriended. And that inspired me for this post.

They come mainly because of the weather, with the sea nearby, sunshine, feeling of safety, you can spend most of the days doing outdoor activity. So they do, Digital nomads hang out and organize group yoga, language exchange, and hiking trips. But what truly amazed me was their local actions that they are willing to participate and even organize – from beach cleaning, helping out people who lost their homes in the earthquake, volunteering in animal shelter…they give us an objective view of our daily surroundings that we are used and numbed to.



How can we continue the virtuous cycle

Digital nomads give us the momentum to act towards making our home inviting to people who will come as a responsible individual, a sustainable tourist. The one who will immerse in our laid back culture and richen our daily lives. 

They are leaving us with understanding what makes us special.  We should use their wide travel experience to treat our home with respect and grow it with the guidelines below:

  • Invest in an open, transparent community where people can engage, they want to but don’t know how to

  • Use ecological principles in daily lives and be proud of it. Reuse! Repurpose! Respect natural surroundings!

  • Walk, bike – take care of your own body, it will bring you satisfaction and you will actually see the places in your hometown they love the most and you haven’t seen in years.

  • Support local small food producers – help them, talk to them, find out their story and be proud to make friends with them -then recommend them to your tourist – they will be very happy and feel included.



Following just these little steps, you will see your community with different eyes – it will have a new social layer and enrich your life so you can be proud to be part of the positive change tourism will bring us. It actually already has!



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Written by Philippe21 September 2020

Insurance training is boring?

Most of us have been through corporate training, in companies’ meeting rooms, training centers or convention halls. There, even if the training sessions were not always interesting, the advantage was that you could meet new people, do some networking and at least have breakfast or even lunch. Hot coffee and warm croissants… it’s not that bad after all. What about the Return on Investment for that training? Well… 

Since the COVID spread around the world however, training has substantially evolved and gone online at a previously unseen pace. Companies that were only talking about digitization now had to do it! Under time pressure. Many companies were not ready and had to put together some online courses within a very short timeframe. As for the level of quality and engagement, well… 

In both cases, learners find the training sub-optimal, not to say totally boring. If 5% of your learners finish your online courses, it’s normal. No, it’s not! If you have the right management buy-in and the right online training, you should aim much higher. 

Does it have to be that way? Really?
Young talents expect – and deserve – more than this! We all love learning.

Alright, alright, but “some topics are more interesting than others”, “Insurance is dull, it’s boring.” Really?
Protecting the people you love and the things you like is boring? Insurance is connected to anything we do. There are countless beautiful or tragic stories related to insurance.

Besides, ANYTHING can be made interesting. It’s all about your state of mind… 

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Written by Philippe23 September 2019

Insurance 2030

McKinsey report

The industry is on the verge of a seismic, tech-driven shift. A focus on four areas can position carriers to embrace this change.

DOWNLOADABLE RESOURCES

  1. Article (PDF-834KB)

Welcome to the future of insurance, as seen through the eyes of Scott, a customer in the year 2030. His digital personal assistant orders him an autonomous vehicle for a meeting across town. Upon hopping into the arriving car, Scott decides he wants to drive today and moves the car into “active” mode. Scott’s personal assistant maps out a potential route and shares it with his mobility insurer, which immediately responds with an alternate route that has a much lower likelihood of accidents and auto damage as well as the calculated adjustment to his monthly premium. Scott’s assistant notifies him that his mobility insurance premium will increase by 4 to 8 percent based on the route he selects and the volume and distribution of other cars on the road. It also alerts him that his life insurance policy, which is now priced on a “pay-as-you-live” basis, will increase by 2 percent for this quarter. The additional amounts are automatically debited from his bank account.

When Scott pulls into his destination’s parking lot, his car bumps into one of several parking signs. As soon as the car stops moving, its internal diagnostics determine the extent of the damage. His personal assistant instructs him to take three pictures of the front right bumper area and two of the surroundings. By the time Scott gets back to the driver’s seat, the screen on the dash informs him of the damage, confirms the claim has been approved, and that a mobile response drone has been dispatched to the lot for inspection. If the vehicle is drivable, it may be directed to the nearest in-network garage for repair after a replacement vehicle arrives.

While this scenario may seem beyond the horizon, such integrated user stories will emerge across all lines of insurance with increasing frequency over the next decade. In fact, all the technologies required above already exist, and many are available to consumers. With the new wave of deep learning techniques, such as convolutional neural networks,1 artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to live up to its promise of mimicking the perception, reasoning, learning, and problem solving of the human mind (Exhibit 1). In this evolution, insurance will shift from its current state of “detect and repair” to “predict and prevent,” transforming every aspect of the industry in the process. The pace of change will also accelerate as brokers, consumers, financial intermediaries, insurers, and suppliers become more adept at using advanced technologies to enhance decision making and productivity, lower costs, and optimize the customer experience.

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Written by Philippe22 May 2019

Jornada de Seguros

The Insurance Day in Buenos Aires

The Insurance Day took place in Argentina this year on May 22.

The key topic were digitization, disruption, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data.

As the behavioural economist Dan Ariely once tweeted, “Big data is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it.”

 

 

 

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Written by Philippe6 May 1995

Innovation in Insurance?

Was it the first website of a Norwegian insurance company?

Many years ago, a Norwegian insurance company called at that time Uni Storebrand, gave the chance to the young and fresh graduate that I was to work as a trainee. The internship was to take place in Oslo. I had never been to Norway before so it was very exciting to have such a great opportunity! Discovering new cultures and working abroad was my dream.

Picture: A wonderful traineeship in a very supportive team, the marketing team of Uni Storebrand, 1995. It was not my idea to sit on the table. 🙂

So, as the date of the beginning of the internship drew closer, I flew to Oslo to get ready for what would be one of my most interesting internships. I had studied business and IT was my passion (together with learning languages of course). The person in charge of internships considered that I would be a good fit for the marketing team.

My boss was a friendly Norwegian woman. She was leading the marketing team in a professional and very human way. Trust was the key. I liked her management style very much. She gave me the task of finding an interesting way to introduce Uni Storebrand’s products to potential leads. Creating another flyer was an option, but she was very open to new ideas and would be supportive of doing something more innovative for clients.
After a few discussions and drafts, we developed the idea of preparing some 3.5″ floppy disks with some information about Storebrand’s insurance products. It would be different from all these flyers that people got and it would actually help recipients get more useful information and maybe even calculate premiums. Wow! 🙂 (mind you, this was 1995…)

As I worked on my assignment with enthusiasm fueled by the support from the marketing team, I remembered something that my friend Greg A., a doctor from Florida, had showed me a few years earlier when I was on holiday at their place. It was a network of networks that he used to share information with fellow medical specialists, digitally. There was no need to send disks around! It was better for the environment and faster. I did not know much more than this, but I got the green light to look into how to replace these 3.5″ disks by a solution based on that network of networks. In any case, I was an intern and we could try a few things.

That network of networks was called the Internet. It was a world with then-strange concepts such as websites, HTML, web servers, hosting, hyperlinks. At that time, there were 23,500 websites (see http://www.internetlivestats.com/total-number-of-websites). The year before, in 1994, there were 2,738 websites, 130 websites in 1993 and 1 in August 1991. As I am writing this text, the statistics on that webpage show 1,902,821,963, with several new websites being added every single second.

It was not clear to me how all these concepts and technologies worked together but a telecommunication company I visited assured me they could host a website. They didn’t have more information than this. Now, I had to see how to create one. Luckily, someone had written a book about this intriguing HTML. So I started studying it and created my first webpage! It was actually quite simple, once you knew… as you can imagine, it had an amazing design: something like “Hello World” in black over a white background… Wait, there was also a picture and even a hyperlink! Hehe…

Thanks to my colleagues, we soon had the content about each of the products, in Norwegian. Then, I was very excited to create my first “official” default.html page, i.e. the main page. It contained 10 bullet points, with each of them linking to another page. Last but really not least, we finally managed to upload it on a webserver, and there we were, Uni Storebrand’s first website was born!

 

 

 

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