Talking sustainability, culture and the future of insurance with Sten Saar, CEO of Zego
2040, Zego & The Future of Mobility: An Interview with Sten Saar, CEO, Zego
Zego is a commercial motor insurance provider that powers opportunities for businesses, from entire fleets of vehicles to self-employed drivers and riders. It combines best-in-class technology with sophisticated data sources to offer insurance products that save businesses time and money. Since its inception, Zego has believed that the problem with traditional insurance is that it holds businesses back. It’s too expensive and time consuming, and it no longer suits businesses who use vehicles to earn money. Zego’s products represent a solution to this problem for businesses based across the UK, Europe and beyond.
Sten Saar, Zego's CEO joined Alex Bond on The Leadership In Insurance Podcast in an episode looking to the future of insurance and discussing Zego's vision for the future of mobility. Here are some of the conversation highlights...
How are you holding onto culture and how do you keep that start-up feel when you start to become big business??
I’ve been from day one with the business and I would say that I’ve seen seven to eight different stages of Zego, the business constantly evolves. If you're a team of 30 and you want to keep the same way of operating and same culture you're not going to be successful when you're 200.? For us the key lies in core values, they unite our teams and are our common denominator across the board. One of our values, for me the most resonating one is ‘Zego before ego’, we focus on what’s best for the business and implement this mentality throughout everything we do.??
Why do you think it’s important for insurance companies to be looking to the future that looks beyond into the wider world??
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Insurance is an intangible part of a value chain, I like to use the analogy of amazon web services, if you turn them off half the websites disappear off the planet, they are the tide riser essentially, you never see them, but they do exist and power all of it and insurance has, in my opinion, the same role to play. Therefore how do you then inspire people working in insurance and also understand the impact they are having for the rest of the world? We wanted to paint a picture of how the 2040 could look like based on what technology is available and being developed. We wanted to present this picture beyond Zego, recognising that we are just one element contributing to bringing that future to life. We realised that when you visualise things it becomes a lot more understood. My vision of an autonomous vehicle is probably very different to yours, but by visually presenting this idea we can come to a common understanding. We recognise that Zego’s impact will be only one element of many that will make p this vision. We want to inspire the people in the industry and encourage everyone to envisage how the future could look and highlight that we all have a role to play today to enable it.??
What part can the insurance industry play to help that vision become a reality from a regulation standpoint??
Regulation is the final signature of approval needed for innovation, but for this to be easily granted all the other parts have to make sense and come together. Fundamentally, the biggest shift for the insurance industry going forward will be adapting our mindsets from being reactive to proactive. Traditionally we respond to these issues by looking to historic data but for these new classes going forwards we will need new strategy to stay ahead.??
?Do you think the industry has an obligation to proactively encourage the movement away from fossil fuels?? If it can’t be insured, it won’t be used…?
We have a role to play, for sure. One way we could approach this is for insurance companies to focus on the claims handling and the supply chain networks. One of the obstacles right now is that when looking for a quote for your Tesla compared to the equivalent petrol car, the petrol car will be cheaper. By focusing on the accessibility and affordability of sustainable options we can encourage the trickle-down effect of the greener options being more attractive. Incentivizing through action is key.??