The ‘Harry Potter’ problem solvers
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Legal & General: the ‘Harry Potter problem’ solvers WRITTEN BY
MATT HIGH PRODUCED BY
JAMES PEPPER
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LEGAL & GENERAL FUTURE VENTURES
Maarten Ectors, Chief Innovation Officer at Legal & General, discusses his team’s approach to solving the most complex digital innovation problems
“
A
t the moment, we have more demand than we can handle,” says Maarten Ectors, Chief Innovation Officer at Legal & General
(L&G). But, for Ectors and his Future Ventures team, that is no bad thing. He, and the group of innovators he collaborates with, seek out and solve those most 04
critical of business problems – and they answer them in weeks. Ectors has termed such challenges ‘Harry Potter problems’, the type of issues, he says, that “businesses and organisations have tried, and failed, to solve and don’t know who to turn to for a solution. The only course of action left is to go to the innovator that might hold a magic wand in the shape of new technologies or business approaches to solve the problems faster, cheaper and more effectively than anyone else. We’re that innovator.” Ectors joined L&G in June 2017 as Chief Digital Officer with a singular mission: to make insurance smart and exciting with the aim of disrupting the industry. It didn’t take long; the company’s general insurance unit won awards for the most innovative home insurer and best claims technology solution – SmartClaim – of the year in 2018. That same year,
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ÂŁ2,049mn Net income (2018)
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Year founded
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“ Have a Harry Potter problem? A critical business problem which others weren’t able to solve? Take it to the innovators that can bring a magic wand, by using new technologies and business approaches to solve your problem in a faster, cheaper and award-winning way”
he assumed his current position in the organisation, taking the same awardwinning approach and building a team focused on solving business problems with the help of innovative technologies such as next-generation blockchain, AI, serverless solutions, mobile apps and chatbots, experimenting with continuous deployment and new business models, in collaboration with some of the world’s most disruptive innovators. Key to the success of the L&G team over the last three years is the innovative mindset which Ectors brought to the organisation. Having previously held roles at businesses such as Nokia Siemens and Canonical/Ubuntu, he was highly experienced in innovation and technology, yet freely admits he had
Maarten Ectors, Future Ventures Chief Innovation Officer, Legal & General
less knowledge of how to bring that experience to an incumbent in a sector that is more traditional in its approach. “Can a 180+ year-old company be a fast innovator?” he asks. “Yes. Innovation is an attitude that you can easily teach to business, technical and support functions. Innovation, and our Harry Potter problem approach is all about mindset. I joined L&G from a technology background. When it came to innovating, I’d previously formed
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘LEGAL & GENERAL’S CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER, MAARTEN ECTORS, ON SOLVING THE MOST CHALLENGING ‘HARRY POTTER PROBLEMS’’ 07 startup-like groups, within which we
an award-winning home insurance
would take specific problems or a new
solution that integrates multiple data
technology like cloud computing,
sources and combines technology
create specialised teams and focus
and automation to simplify the claims
solely on those problems for weeks
notification, verification and validation
to come up with a solution. You don’t
processes. “At one of our first meetings,
know what will happen after that time,
we sat with some of the largest brands
and it’s a case of ‘you either do this and
and businesses, including Google,
you do it well, or you don’t’. We never
Oracle, IBM and Accenture, and gave
allowed ourselves a big budget, which
them four key problems and a three-
means you can’t approach things in the
month exercise in solving them – one
normal way, and so have to find a way
was around claims,” says Ectors. “The
to make things work. This is the type
premise really was ‘let’s make it as easy
of thinking we now embrace at L&G.”
as possible for an honest customer
This approach led to SmartClaim,
and as hard as possible for a dishonest w w w.l e ga l a ndge ne ra l gro u p . com
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customer’, and that became the first
based, uses AI and image recognition
Harry Potter problem.”
to validate the claims and learns as
Testament to the innovative spirit that
it works to improve fraud detection.
drives L&G, a solution was in production
The solution won the best claim
within a remarkable six weeks. Graeme
technology of the year award last year
Findlay, Innovation Delivery Director,
and our Net Promoter Score (NPS)
elaborates: “There’s a really nice
went from negative to 90, which
dichotomy in the product from an
is pretty close to perfect.”
insurance perspective, in making the
The success of SmartClaim marked
act of claiming easy for the genuine
the turning point for L&G’s digital
and hard for the disingenuous.
transformation journey. According to
SmartClaim was born in just six weeks
Ectors, the overriding sentiment in the
from start to finish, and that’s for a full
business at that point, in September
serverless solution that is chat-bot
2018, “was whether we could bring
this approach to more areas of the business – the remit became ‘let’s innovate all over the company’.” The result of that remit was the development of the Future Ventures team, as Ectors sought to bring the brightest and most willing innovators on board. This includes Future Ventures Director Peggy Loo. “The problem with established businesses is that any innovation is preceded by long cycles of planning, developing business cases and then implementing ideas years in advance. You actually want to get into the mindset of operating with a startup mentality and, through your innovation
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Maarten Ectors Maarten Ectors is Chief Innovation Officer for Legal & General, the UK’s biggest investment manager, annuity, pension provider and life insurer. Maarten came from a software innovation background. His mission is to launch faster, cheaper and award-winning solutions to critical business problems the industry was not able to solve before, or Harry Potter problems.
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“ Can a 180+ year old company be a fast innovator? Yes. Innovation is a mindset that can spread like a virus” Maarten Ectors, Future Ventures Chief Innovation Officer, Legal & General
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and technology, compete with them.
out the opportunities to scale them up.
What I saw very quickly is that the
Despite working within the confines of
startup way of working – being really
one of the largest insurance, pension
innovative, developing ideas rapidly
and investment companies, the team
and proving the concept early before
is resolute in its disruptive mindset:
further development – is how Maarten
“It may sound strange to some, but we
and Graeme were approaching
really feel like a startup company,”
innovation within L&G. It was obvious
says Findlay. “We have a modest fixed
that it should be the way in which we as
budget and culturally we’ve adopted
a wider organisation should approach
a mentality whereby we move very
all our projects. Think like a startup, fail
rapidly, try and fail quickly, and we
fast, fail cheaply and keep innovating.”
don’t waste time reaching decisions.”
Since, Loo, Ectors, Findlay and their
Naturally, that mindset has resulted
Future Ventures colleagues have relied
in the development of several innovative
on the “very repeatable and simple”
new products. This includes new
Harry Potter problem model to identify
Blockchain platform Estua(re), the first
the key ‘problems’ for L&G, and seek
pension risk transfer execution platform
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driven by blockchain technology. Developed through the use of Amazon Web Services and recognised as a single ecosystem, Estua(re) is capable of driving each stage of the pension risk transfer reinsurance value chain, including pricing, claims handling, financial reporting and collateral using data that is stored on the blockchain. It will, says Matt Bannock, who is leading the blockchain delivery, “greatly reduce the workload of operating contracts and the use of smart contracts, will 14
mitigate the need for reconciliation between insurer and re-insurer, and make it easier for L&G and its customers to interact securely. The system is built on the Hyperledger fabric, which is being supplied by Data Art.” Similarly, the team is in the process of rolling out a new mobile app, first to L&G employees but with the intention of distributing to its customers. The Harry Potter problem in this instance? “Our workplace pension team needed to enhance their mobile proposition to remain competitive in their tendering process,” says Ectors. The driving force behind the app’s development was simplicity. “It collates
“ Think like a startup, fail fast, fail cheaply and keep innovating” Peggy Loo, Future Ventures Director, Legal & General a series of functions whereby people can interact with each other, and ultimately customers, into a single ecosystem where services complement each other,” says Loo. “You may wish to speak with a tech advisor or a financial adviser, for example, which in turn may lead you to considering options related to your health, employee share schemes or pension. Ecosystems are important. No one thinks of their life in a single, compartmentalised way anymore. All of our interactions relate to each other. For us, however, it was really important to create a single place where people can access everything they need to and suppliers w w w.l e ga l a ndge ne ra l gro u p . com
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CLICK TO WATCH : ‘LEGAL & GENERAL’S FUTURE VENTURES TEAM: PROBLEM SOLVING, INNOVATION AND TRANSFORMING FROM WITHIN’ 17 can come on board to serve these
done and carry on being as productive
customers and take it in their own
as possible. It’s always all about ‘what
direction. The solution in its early
is your problem, and how can we solve
phases, distributed via employers and
it in the most effective way?’. Whichever
employees. It’s super scalable too –
direction we take our innovation, it
ultimately, people can fully personalise
needs to be faster, cheaper and better.
how they use the app. You have the ability
It’s the Netflix or Amazon mentality,
to collate favourite services, products or
strip away complexity and allow people
content, or to develop it with a particular
to get what they want quickly and simply.”
group or social club in mind.” “We’re making the anti-Facebook
Naturally, developing innovative solutions at the pace in which the
app,” Ectors adds. “We don’t want
Future Ventures team works, requires
people to spend a long time within it.
close collaboration with industry-leading
If you are an employee and you need
partners. The team has a rigorous
something done, you can log in, get it
selection process, according to Sean w w w.l e ga l a ndge ne ra l gro u p . com
LEGAL & GENERAL FUTURE VENTURES
O’reilly, Head of Technology Innovation:
important from our perspective is that
“We like to specify one of our Harry
we don’t support people forever.
Potter problems and to set it as a
We introduce the problem followed by
challenge for a number of potential
the technology, but then take a step
partners in the shape of a five minutes
back and expect people to take it
RFI. We’ll expect a presentation on
forward. Collaboration is key through-
potential solutions in as little as week
out the process.”
with a one to three minutes video on
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To date, the Future Ventures team at
how easy our problem can be solved.
L&G has achieved spectacular results
Watching the video, we can discard
in a short period of time. It is rare to
solutions in five minutes. Afterwards,
find such an innovative and disruptive
we collaboratively develop the solution
mindset in large corporations but the
with our partners and ultimately spread
spirit that Ectors and his colleagues
it across the business. What’s really
embody is rapidly becoming more
commonplace across the business.
even spreads beyond company
“I see innovation as something that you
borders and changes relationships
inject, and it spreads like a virus,” he
from suppliers to partners as we are
explains. “It shouldn’t be bound by a
seeing from our collaborations with the
team. It’s a way of creating a move-
likes of DataArt, Amazon, Microsoft,
ment where everyone in the organisa-
etc. That’s what drives me and that’s
tions comes together – moving quickly
what I want more of.”
is always best if everyone looks at the same problem from different perspectives and meets at the final solution. We are bringing people together in the organisation to come up with the best possible solutions fast and more cheaply than anyone else. Innovation 19
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Legal & General Future Ventures 1 Coleman St, London EC2R 5AA T 020 3124 2000 www.legalandgeneralgroup.com