Marcos Rodriguez Silva is Chief Transformation Officer at Zurich Insurance in Spain. Once again this year, he was kind enough to join our panel of judges for the Qorus Innovation in Insurance Awards. He talks to us about his expectations for the 2024 edition.
Tell us more about yourself and your role at Zurich.
For the last five years I’ve been leading the Transformation office for Zurich Insurance in Spain, in charge of a diverse team of around 80 professionals developing strategy, business development, innovation, data & analytics, operational excellence, intelligent automation, and corporate finance.
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What do you see as the key trends in insurance this year?
In mature markets, I see a stronger focus on profitability over growth, rebalancing portfolios and increasing underwriting discipline (specially in retail as a whole and more markedly in PL), while searching for efficiency and agility leveraging emerging tech like LLM, AI, IoT, intelligent automation, etc. In emerging markets there’s a much larger appetite for growth and grabbing market share, primarily through deals, partnerships and accelerated scaling strategies. All in all, I see an emerging trend in growth in partnerships and embedded insurance.
What kind of innovative projects would you like to see submitted this year?
I am always positively surprised by the quality and creativity of the projects; as with the ‘industrial policy’, I believe it’s best not to limit yourself ex-ante, keeping an open mindset and being receptive to interesting proposals, no matter their nature or area of focus.
In your capacity as a judge, you have read many innovation submissions. What do you look for in a winning entry? And what qualities have stood out for you in previous innovation entries?
Credibility, robustness, market-proofing, innovativeness… these are the qualities that move my vote.
What is the one tip you have for those preparing innovation entries this year?
Be able to demonstrate value and impact through specific proof-points. There are many interesting ideas, but winners are those that get to the market and actually move the needle.
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