Striking a balance between innovation and experimentation and supporting the core business is crucial, an Actuaries Institute seminar in Sydney heard.

IAG Group GM Venturing Ron Arnold addressed the second GI Glimpse event last week, examining future trends for young general insurance actuaries.

In his keynote speech, The Seven Es of Innovation, Mr Arnold identified the following aspects of driving successful and sustainable innovation.

• Explore: discover new things about your customers and business to help identify the need and opportunity for innovation
• Envision: think about possible future scenarios and what this might mean for your business
• Experiment: test potential products, processes and propositions that could provide new or better solutions for customers, or improve business outcomes
• Embrace: learn to accept both failure and success, and be courageous in overcoming speed bumps that may arise along the way
• Extend: commit to successful experiments through finding the business support and resources to scale and grow the project
• Endurance: patience and perseverance is critical in developing long-term solutions and making innovation part of the cultural DNA of a business
• Endorse: gain the support of your organisational leaders to continue to push forward and achieve the collective support of the wider organisation.

Mr Arnold says the major transitions in insurance are in product design, underwriting and distribution.

New technology can transform products and services, while Big Data and smart analytics mean underwriting models will evolve and become more predictive. The digital revolution has created a mobile-only generation who rely on such technology to consume products and services, he says.