Successful insurance innovation – an interview with Jason Stockwood, Vice Chairman Simply Business
#Insurance #Commercialinsurance #Insurtech #Data #Innovation
I have known @Jason Stockwood, Vice Chairman of #Simply Business for many years (even before @Elad Tsur, @Amir Cohen and I founded #Planck). Jason is a successful CEO and entrepreneur with a sincere customer and employee focused attitude. In his journey with Simply Business, Jason and team transformed the way small business owners purchase insurance, doing incredible things with tech and data – and converted a small insurance business into a big one creating value for shareholders, customers and employees. This itself is a major achievement, but the real story is the way Jason and the Simply Business team accomplished this feat.
Simply Business achieved its aggressive financial goals while being selected as the Best Company to Work For (twice) and becoming B Corp certified (a business that balances purpose and profit). This is a vindication of their efforts to create a company that has a positive impact on the world at large, not “just” a great business.
I had the chance to discuss with Jason some of the takeaways from his journey, including the potential opportunity incumbent insurers have in the new world of insurance. The result is a compelling conversation - philosophical and inspiring – focused on discussing how we do things in addition to what we do.
The complete interview can be found here. Following are a couple of highlights.
In the context of incumbents and newcomers in the evolving world of commercial insurance Jason mentioned that he is not convinced that technology is the hard piece anymore. In his mind there are three things that help massively – access to smart people with a culture of experimentation, access to capital, and long-term perspectives. And in this regard, insurance industry incumbents have a huge opportunity, and possibly an advantage over newcomers to the industry.
Jason concluded that in order to be successful in the new world of insurance you need to create a culture built on trust, where great people are given the conditions and freedom to test hypotheses - and that it’s important that people have fun while they’re doing it. Jason has always wanted to build the sort of business that he’d want to work in, and believes that a team of happy, motivated people is the single greatest element to success in business.
And in his words that “businesses need to value people and society alongside profit – more and more businesses are realizing that they have a duty to be a force for good. The new world of insurance, and the technology that comes with it, should unlock new ways of working that make people’s lives better. New technologies will fundamentally change the way businesses operate, and it’s our duty to explore these and understand how we can use this to make people’s lives more fulfilled.”
I recommend reading the full interview here.