Why Insurance rocks. Nigel Walsh Driving innovation in InsurTech for Deloitte and beyond

What is your background briefly?

I’m a technology guy at heart, although never wanted to be.  After doing a Business Degree in Salford, I went through University wanting to be an accountant or actuary, but was told not to specialise too early.  I worked for a number of software companies that did some pretty cool things – self service, chat, automated email and knowledge bases back in 1999. I remember a customer saying to me back then, why would we want to chat with people online or email you?.  Look at us now.  We don’t want to call!

I then fell into insurance over 10 years ago and truly fell in love with it.  I spent the early part of this doing major systems implementation on the likes of Guidewire for some of the biggest carriers.  I learned a huge amount here. But also saw the challenges of doing major scale transformation, and projects that took 2-5 years. Big IT Projects have a reputation.  I’m fortunate to have worked with great teams, they were never straight lines, but they were great fun and amazing learning lessons.

That leads me to today, I lead InsurTech for Deloitte. It’s a pretty broad term and really means I get to work with some of the coolest startups looking to enhance and disrupt our industry.  Insurance doesn’t always have a great reputation for being cool – but as Sarah, my co-host on the InsurTech Insiders podcast wrote – we have drones and self-driving cars.  What’s not to fall in love with!

Does it seem like a logical background to what you do now?

Yes, I think so – it brings together both the business side of things, and technology.  Both which I’m passionate about. While I love technology and cool all things shiny, having tech for tech sake is one of my pet peeves.  We have to solve business problems, not just chase the latest tech.

1 min pitch for what you are doing now?

Oh blimey. From what I can share. Here goes. Supporting startups. Creating Communities. Building MGA’s.  Scouting Startups.  Writing papers.  Creating partnerships. Understanding the future for Insurance.  Deploying robots. Co-Hosting the InsurTech Insider Podcast.  Creating new propositions. Connecting people.  Supporting Projects in London, New York, Dublin and building the global team.

There is a lot of exciting projects & potential for change in Insurtech.

How far have we come over the last couple of years?

We have definitely matured and I genuinely think come a long way.  Go back 5 years and this category didn’t even exist.  Here we are, 5 years later and nearly 30bn invested in to some super exciting startups, from full stack providers (few) through to a huge array of startups nibbling away at each and every part of the insurance value chain and leveraging every disrupting technology.  We are trying them all, from AI to Blockchain, from IoT to Self Driving Cars every possible variant in the middle. At every step of the value chain, we are testing new ideas out, theres a startup that’s established bringing in new data, understanding risk in new ways and trying to change the status quo.  We are also testing new business models in some instances which is great to see.

Insurance is however not known to be quick though.  Patience is essential.

How much is IoT, big data & blockchain a factor in what is now possible?

It’s all possible now, but I often talk about customers needing to be ready or at least more ready.  What I mean by this, is we (in the UK at least) have spent 20+ years conditioning folks to answer 30-50 questions for motor or home or life (well 3 questions for that) and then search 100+ providers and present them back on price. We have somehow removed the value from the equation here and then complain about lack of engagement.

I think this is all about to change through value added services, when Insurers will start to provide services we fall in love with and want – along with the shift from reactive, waiting for claims to pro-active monitoring and services that add to our daily life’s.  We are seeing it in a very transparent way through wearables and telematics, nudging you to do the right things changing your risk and enhancing our everyday lives.

Time for Insurance to lead here and I think the opportunity is there for the taking.

How can people find out more about you & your work?

I’m definitely not shy.  You can find me actively engaging on twitter here, see some of my long form posts here on LinkedIn, comments on recent news here at Deloitte and of course, hear me here on InsurTech Insiders regularly here.

How do you keep up to date with trends?

This is a full time task.   I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by some super smart people from all around the firm and across multiple geographies, as well of course as the Deloitte University Press team.

Outside the firm, I’m always learning from the customers, partners and the InsurTechs alike with what they are doing across the market, the problems they are looking to solve and so much more.  The global InsurTech community is super active and always open for debate, challenge and help.  It’s truly great to be part of this.

Finally, don’t just follow the same old standard stuff and don’t live in your own bubble, it’s important for me to keep an eye on adjacent industries and trends too given Insurance is so fundamental to society as a whole.

Anything else you’d like to add / we should have asked?

Insurance rocks and is way more vibrant, diverse and exciting than most people realise.  Are we perfect, no! are we making changes every single day. Hell yes and it’s great to be part of the journey.   There’s never a dull day! Come join the fun with me and the team at @deloitte

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