Zurich launches the UK Innovation Foundry

Zurich has launched the UK Innovation Foundry, an attempt to progress the insurer’s innovation agen­da in a formally coordinated way.

The Innovation Foundry promises to support the development of all ideas, including process improvements, the introduction of a new technology or a brand new proposition.

Crucially, Zurich wants the Innovation Foundry to seek long-term partnerships rather than focus on mergers or acquisitions, depending on the genesis of an idea or proposition.

Zurich has demonstrated a recent commitment to innovation, as highlighted by its partnership with Laka, a disruptive bike insurance product, as well as the launch of FaceQuote, a selfie tool helping consumers to understand what life cover would cost.

David White, managing director of retail at Zurich Insurance, commented: “We launched the UK Innovation Foundry to build on a central principle of Zurich’s global strategy—that innovation and fostering an innovative culture should be a permanent fixture for all organisations that want to stay relevant.”

“If we are going to think and work differently, we need to focus our efforts in the right places and the Innovation Foundry will take ideas from an initial ‘spark’, test them for value at every stage and move to a full scale roll-out for the right ideas.”

“Building on our experience and achievements over the past year, we aim to work this in to the very fabric of our business. No idea will be considered wrong, however, if something doesn’t work we want to fail fast and move on to the next thing. This is a very exciting time for Zurich in the UK so watch this space!”

Mark Dugdale