Why AXA wants to become the leader in innovation in insurance

For my first post on LinkedIn, a special occasion was required. Today, we are announcing that the Group surpassed the € 100 billion revenue mark in 2016. I can only admire the progress made by AXA, which in just over 30 years has become a world leader in insurance and asset management. All of this was made possible by the tenacity of men and women who were able to follow their entrepreneurial instincts and constantly innovate in order to meet the great challenges of their time.

In Paris, San Francisco, Shanghai, Lagos and elsewhere; in garages, student dorm rooms, and co-work spaces, entrepreneurs run with an idea and the desire to change the world. I know and understand their ambition and motivation. It’s the same ambition and the same motivation that my team feels at the thought of transforming the global giant AXA has become. The digital revolution opens up a whole new era for insurance and a one-of-a-kind opportunity to revolutionize the customer experience in our industry.

AI, driverless cars, blockchains, connected healthcare, robo advisors… We need to be on top of these changes. Leveraging the Group's great strength, we have embarked on a profound transformation. Innovation will play a key role in our success, which is why I want AXA to become a leader in insurance innovation.

€ 100 billion – is that the end of the story?

What is AXA’s purpose? To empower people to live a better life. Technology will enable us to better fulfill this mission and become a true partner for the families and companies that trust us. I don’t think we have yet taken the full measure of our potential for improving life for our customers.

Let’s take the example of health. We want every member of the AXA community to have access, at all times and anywhere in the world, to services that enable them to stay healthy or to be cared for under optimal conditions. We are investing in and testing remote medical services to facilitate access to care. Health is one of our strategic priorities, a sector where our interests are perfectly aligned with those of our customers.

To become a leader in innovation, we have set up an ecosystem to identify, incubate, and scale the ideas and services that will change the lives of our customers tomorrow, whether within the company - 160,000 employees, who can all contribute to our transformation - or in partnership with entrepreneurs, start-ups, and the global digital giants.

The size and global presence of the Group make us a tremendous accelerator of innovation. Our corporate culture too, because AXA, under the leadership of Claude Bébéar and Henri de Castries, was built by taking risks. Today, this risk culture must enable us to launch projects without the guarantee of success. This is fundamental to staying innovative.

Limiting innovation to technology would be a mistake. Innovation has to irrigate our entire corporate culture. I want AXA to also lead the way in innovating how we work together, with the aim of becoming more collective and more inclusive. At the highest level of the company, one of my first decisions was to change the way top management meets, to create new spaces for dialogue, and to make executives genuine "Partners." Another example is the Group's new policy on parenting, which is comprehensive, generous, and open to all.

Lastly, becoming a leader in innovation means constantly innovating in the way we interact with society as a whole. To have an impact. Our planet faces immense and unprecedented challenges, and only new ideas will help us meet them. Whether in the day-to-day involvement of AXA Hearts in Action volunteers with the most disadvantaged or in the decisions a global leader can make. I am particularly proud that AXA was the first major financial group to have decided to divest from the tobacco industry and I hope others will soon follow suit.

I spoke of motivation and ambition; I would like to end with confidence. For the past 6 months, I have had the privilege of meeting with AXA's teams on all continents, and I have been able to measure the shared determination that drives us and gives me full confidence in our ability to continue with the energy of the first day in every aspect of our business. € 100 billion, a new beginning!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be informed of my upcoming publications, click on the Follow button at the top right of this post.

Full Year 2016 Earnings "On track towards Ambition 2020 targets", read more on axa.com.