Lessons in Innovation at Eurapco:

A certainty facing the insurance industry is that disruptive change is permanent. London Business School partnered with Eurapco, a strategic alliance of primarily mutual insurance companies, to create the Eurapco Executive Programme. This nine-month learning journey prepares future leaders to be more innovative in how they meet the unpredictable and the unforeseen – and to inspire their teams to deliver in tough conditions. The group employs 63,000 people, with €215.3 billion under management across 35 countries. Designed for senior leaders, top specialists and directors at levels just below chief executive, the programme’s content works to unlock the necessary skills that will determine Eurapco’s future.

The Challenge

Buffeted by covid, climate change, global conflicts and developments in health and longevity, the insurance world is highly volatile in the 2020s. Strong leadership, centred on reactive agility, is essential when addressing this constant disruption. The leaders of Eurapco wished to leverage greater managerial coherence through cross pollination of senior talent in the eight separate businesses within the group. The win-win goal was to develop wider perspectives through shared experience and to reinforce the resilience required to adapt and adjust.

London Business School was tasked with creating a learning path to stimulate participants. Theory was to be evenly matched with practice. Conventional approaches in insurance were to be challenged. As for the course structure, all possibilities to inspire mindset and behaviour change were up for consideration. Proactive anticipation in the insurance sector can never be a perfect science, but the guiding principle was that shared, learned experience from the completed programme would equip each individual to deal with disruption back in the everyday.

The Approach

Changing a cohort’s perspective requires a degree of vulnerability from the participants. They are being asked to reflect on their instinctive (and sometimes institutionalised) responses. Safe space learning is therefore essential to initiate options other than the tried and tested. As with all London Business School courses, the Eurapco Executive Programme is conducted in a spirit of risk-free positivity. Highly skilled, motivated and accomplished individuals from markets are gathered together and encouraged to question every orthodoxy. 

The nine-month engagement includes two separate, on-campus experiences at Regent’s Park. A series of individual and virtual interactions populate the wider schedule. Real-world events necessitate constant updates. In the summer of 2023, for example, the influence of both wellbeing (examined through a neuroscientific lens) and artificial intelligence on insurance outcomes led to them being given particular focus. As with the realities of 21st Century insurance business, an adaptability in the customised programme structure is essential. It keeps the learning relevant.

Implementation

With cohorts of twenty people, five programmes have already run with further participation planned. Preceded by a virtual webinar, the two ‘hotspots’ are a four-day face to face programme in March and a three-day workshop in June. Individual experiments, run online and conducted in the delegate’s own time, are scheduled over the nine months. The value of data and in-depth Faculty teaching is sequenced to land with maximum effect. Working with their peers but often meeting each other for the first time, the future leaders are coaxed to greater understanding, breaking down barriers, sharing purpose and through collaborative problem solving.

Every attendee leaves with a roadmap of tangible, practical measures to pursue straightaway. The pressures placed upon Eurapco leaders demand vision and stamina. Developing a broader mental toolkit to motivate their teams with compelling authority remains the consistent imperative. Frequently aired feedback from those who have completed the programme is that the experience has allowed them to see the word differently. They are able to make more insightful diagnoses, leading to more effective prescriptions and more successful solutions.

Impact

Reports from alumni who have completed the Eurapco Executive Programme are overwhelmingly positive. In the current, wider, disruptive climate, the macro benefits of a renewed perspective on external, not just internal, affairs have been highly praised. Improved communication skills generating tangible results are highlighted as a great confidence builder.

It is the practical learning that is most frequently mentioned in impact statements. As an example, during the face-to-face modules, the cohort executes a Formula 1 pitstop challenge. The specificity of such hands-on challenges triggers new approaches to problem solving. Insights into team management and motivation are also brought to life. The individually tailored, co-created action plans with which each delegate departs are tangible roadmaps to generate improved results. Cross company collaboration, where bonds of association are strengthened through contact, proximity and shared experience has also proved a value driver. Exceptional external speakers and internal support for the programme within Eurapco continue to add to its status. The alumni who have been put through its paces have proved its worth with the way they handle themselves, the problems they face and the people they lead.