REPORT
    Innovation Organizations: A Snap Poll for the Celent Executive Panel
    27th October 2023

    Snap polls reflect questions posed by members of the Celent Executive Panel, a group of C level executives in the insurance industry. This insurer was looking for insights on how other insurers are handling innovation and the kinds of work innovation teams are expected to perform.

    This deck provides a summary of the responses to a Snap Poll conducted October 17– October 22, 2023.Questions for a snap poll come from one of the other members of the panel. The snap poll was fielded to select members of the Celent Executive Panel, a group of C level executives in the insurance industry. 18 Insurers responded to this survey over the course of 5 days

    If you are an insurer and are interested in participating and receiving these snap polls, please email kcarnahan@celent.com to verify eligibility.

    The question that was posed was:

    Background:

    This insurer is looking at their innovation team and the work that is done within the team – and what is done outside of the team.They’re interested in how others organize the work of innovation and any thoughts about how to make innovation more effective.

    Questions:

    Do you have a centralized innovation team?

    If you do havea team dedicated to innovation

    Who do they report to?

    Approximately how many people are in the team?

    What kinds of roles are in the team?

    Is the team all in the same location?

    If not, how do they effectively collaborate in a post-covid/remote work environment?

    How effective do you think they are and why?

    How is the team funded?

    What are the expectations for that funding?

    If you don’t have a team dedicated to innovation?

    Why not?

    How are you handling innovation in your organization

    How effective do you think this is?

    When it comes to innovation, there are a wide variety of tasks that are generally done. For each of the tasks listed, please tell us who is responsible for that task (e.g. innovation, IT, business, someone else, a mix, or N/A if you don’t have someone doing this)

    Identifying, researching, and backlogging innovative ideas themselves

    Soliciting and backlogging innovative ideas from outside the innovation team

    Scouting for innovative solutions in the insurtech space

    Investing in startups

    Conducting market research on innovative ideas – e.g. competitive analysis, customer research, focus groups, etc.

    Developing and prioritizing business cases for innovative ideas

    Prototyping innovative solutions internally

    Implementing, or consulting on the implementation of innovative solutions

    Monitoring the performance of innovative solutions after deployment

    Developing solutions to improve internal processes

    Developing new business models or growth initiatives

    Developing new products and services

    Managing intellectual property

    Additional Services. Are there any additional innovation services your company offers that are not listed above?

    How do you measure successful innovation? Are there specific innovation goals?

    How successful do you think your innovation efforts have been?

    Any other thoughts?

    Author
    Karlyn Carnahan
    Karlyn Carnahan
    Head of Insurance, North America