ZURICH INSURANCE
digital solutions that we need to offer ( especially for basic activities like insurance certificates ) as there is a need for that on the market .”
One of the challenges in implementing these digital solutions comes from issues surrounding data . In hyper digitalisation , where everything goes into the cloud , concerns regarding regulations and governance are often raised , Pauwels says . “ Questions you have to address about data include : how do you govern the data ? How do you make sure that you control what is on the cloud ? Where is the data going ? Is there any leakage ? How do you protect your
MATHIEU PAUWELS TITLE : COO customer ? How do you protect the data of your employee ? Ultimately , it revolves around governance .”
Other issues are raised as well , according to Pauwels – especially from a sustainability standpoint . “ Digital transformation has a financial cost . But it also has a sustainability cost , because you consume more servers . It ’ s a different cost to paper , and you ’ re not cutting down trees , but there ’ s still that energy usage question .”
Zurich Group and Zurich France are putting in place regulations to control and monitor this , as well as strong governance to make sure they have control over the data . “ You have control regarding what you put on the cloud , but the growth has been exponential for the last few years . It ’ s certainly an area to monitor closely .”
EXECUTIVE BIO
COMPANY : ZURICH FRANCE
Mathieu Pauwels is Chief
Operating Officer . He has 17 years of professional experience in global IT transformation programmes and in managing multidisciplinary and international teams .
Mathieu Pauwels holds a master ’ s degree in Finance & Business from the ICHEC Business Management School and a specialisation in Business Engineering . He also holds an Executive MBA from IMD Business School .
Digital transformation and company culture The nature of hybrid working patterns has also changed the way teams operate and communicate with each other . Company culture has been disrupted , and taking this into consideration while transforming digitally , is a critical part of the transitional process .
Garnier , Head of UW Casualty and Motor for Zurich in France , says creating a sense of belonging and a cohesive team requires strategy . “ Challenges post-COVID raised questions about how we needed to keep our employee engagement high .
“ Zurich France wasn ’ t the only company facing this , but the way that we decided to tackle it was by putting in place a key initiative called People Engagement . We thought about ways to maintain the relationship between employees , between each other . Another aspect of that was how we maintained relationships with our clients and brokers .” Garnier says that even transitioning colleague relationships from