Opinion: Innovating at pace – "we can't and won't stand still"

Having worked in banking for many years, my time at Suncorp has been a rapid induction into the realities of the insurance industry.

With back-to-back La Nina seasons, and a third just declared, we have seen the debate on climate change and the transition to net zero brought forward by the increased frequency and impact of natural disasters impacting us today.

Then to the COVID pandemic, with the unprecedented impact it has had from both a health & wellbeing and economic perspective. Combined with geopolitical instability around the world, this has driven a major dislocation of supply chains and investment market volatility.

Closer to home in my technology role, we have seen cyber criminals increasing their nefarious activities, with a marked step up in ransomware, phishing, denial of service attacks and customer scams. Responding to zero-day vulnerabilities is now an almost daily reality for our cyber and technology teams.

We have also seen a dramatic acceleration in our customers' adoption of technology, which has increased their expectations for seamless and personalised digital experiences. Artificial intelligence. Machine Learning. Telematics. Intelligent automation. Cloud. Internet of Things. These words are no longer kept within small tech circles but are very much becoming part of our daily insurance vernacular as we all embark on ambitious digital transformations.

And, if all that wasn’t enough, we are navigating a profound shift in how and where work is now being performed: a transfer in the balance of power between employees and their employers, alongside chronic shortages in key skills and capabilities.

As the world around us changes and customers expect higher quality outcomes, faster and at lower cost – we can’t and won’t stand still. We need to evolve and adapt, at pace.

For many years, Suncorp has challenged the traditional ideology of an in-house technology team. Since 2020, our revitalised Technology & Transformation function has encompassed group strategy, transformation, partnering and innovation, alongside infrastructure, digital technology, data and automation. 

Against this challenging backdrop, Suncorp is accelerating our technology-enabled transformation.

Recent dramatic workforce shifts have necessitated new ways of thinking about talent and creating an innovation culture.

At Suncorp, we have doubled down on attracting entry-level interns and graduates, looking more creatively at the degrees we are recruiting from and the diversity we are seeking. I was so pleased to see in our last intake of technology grads and interns we achieved close to 60% female gender mix.

Equally critical is building new capabilities and reskilling our people. We are also creating opportunities for our people to learn about new technologies and get them excited about solving real customer problems.

And of course, the days of people coming to the office to sit at their desk and perform individual tasks is clearly over. We need to think of offices as flexible, fluid and technology-enabled collaboration spaces.

We’re scaling agile ways of working through our Momentum delivery model, building on our strong agile heritage and adapting to lessons learnt from COVID. 

Our Momentum model has been progressively rolled out over the past year, initially in New Zealand, then successfully piloted in Australia across several portfolios, and is now implemented across the enterprise – both business and technology – to over 3,500 people. 

Essential to these new ways of working are mindsets and behaviours:

• Customer obsession – creating a clearer link to customer outcomes.
• Pace over perfection – less bureaucracy – outcomes delivered to customers more quickly.
• Empowered teams – a better experience for our people – working in innovative, adaptive, and accountable teams.
• Transparency and trust – enhanced transparency of delivery performance – in an environment where it is safe to experiment and 'fail forward'.

We have totally revamped our operating model and end-to-end delivery methodology in addition to streamlining our investment funding and governance model.

The final ingredient needed is a portfolio of strategic partners to augment internal capability, be that Insurtechs, the ‘Big Tech’ companies or more traditional business and technology partners.

Our most recent technology wins demonstrate how this comes together.