Discovery – a holistic, ongoing innovation story

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The Qorus-Accenture Insurance Innovation Award proudly recognizes the world’s leading innovators in the sector. The 2022 Global Innovator Award’s top honor recognizes an insurance company that not only demonstrates fresh and exciting innovation, but also integrates innovation into its strategy and daily practices. This year there was no doubt Opening embodied what it really means to be a global innovator in insurance. His innovative methods hold inspiring lessons for all insurance companies and related businesses as they navigate the changing economic landscape.

Building the foundation for innovation

Discovery is well known for its shared value model, most notably its Vitality product, which is based on the idea that if a health or life insurer focuses on making people healthier and changing their behavior, their risk profile will change for the better.

Gareth Friedlander, Deputy CEO of Discovery Life, says, “As the Vitality product has grown and improved within our business, it has become clear how powerful this shared value model is in various financial industries. This really challenges the idea of risk as a static indicator. Rather, risk is strongly influenced by behavior, and eighty percent of health risk-related morbidity is related to factors such as smoking, alcohol use, physical activity, and diet. Driving 60 percentage of fatal accidents are the result of behavior alone. If insurers can change customer behavior and help them make better choices, then the risk curve will shift.”

This core idea of Vitality’s Shared Values Model has proven to be effective and applicable across regions and industries. Building a business based on a clear sense of purpose, continuous innovation and customer needs opens up endless possibilities for future innovation.

While this certainly helps insurers innovate in line with market changes, it doesn’t make sense. Friedländer says, “We believe innovation is proactive, not reactive. Innovation at Discovery is institutional, not event-based or spontaneous.” This is reflected in the orderly pace of innovation across the business, with employees from all areas of the business being encouraged to regularly contribute innovative ideas.

Be ready for change when it happens

In the recently released Accenture Vision for digital health technologies for 2022, ninety-seven percent of healthcare leaders believe that continuous advances in technology are becoming more reliable than economic, political, or social trends in informing their organization’s long-term strategy. In the case of Discovery’s innovations in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the existing technology and innovation infrastructure meant that the company was well positioned to address some of the unique challenges posed by the global pandemic and changes in the use of technology in the industry. .

Vaccination Discovery Max PayBack The product, which received a silver award in the Social, Sustainable and Responsible category, is an example of this. While it was conceived in response to a global event, innovation was made possible by Discovery’s existing shared value model and innovation infrastructure. “The initiative was conceived in the context of slow vaccine rollout and growing vaccine hesitancy due to a lack of awareness and education about the vaccine. As a business, we felt a social responsibility to stimulate behavior and rapidly increase vaccination rates. This social responsibility fits perfectly with our business goals, significantly reducing risk and rewarding people for getting vaccinated,” says Friedländer.

Max PayBack Vaccination is guaranteeing customers up to 100% premium refunds for the first year after a full COVID-19 vaccination to help South Africa’s total cost model vaccination program recover up to R182 million in premiums at the end of the first coverage. year and expand underwriting capabilities in the process.

He adds: “When we started this initiative, we needed to act quickly and come up with solutions without the usual market check. It was good for us, for the community and for our customers, even though we didn’t know the numbers very well yet.” It turned out they were right. Client response has been very positive, with eighty percent of them being vaccinated, more than in most developed countries.

Total cost – what the data says

For an insurance company operating in the midst of a pandemic storm, it was natural for Discovery to focus entirely on innovation to help its customers protect against and weather the impact. Products such as Opening a hospital at home provided clients with access to world-class telemedicine capabilities, digital tools for members and physicians, and remote monitoring devices to track clinical progress in real time and provide quick assistance. Discovery Strength in Unity has supported South Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination program by setting up nine vaccination sites to expand opportunities.

Prior to the pandemic, Discovery knew that incentivizing customers helped reduce the health risks associated with behaviors under their control. However, in the case of a widespread infectious disease, this has not become widespread. They found that it has even more powerful potential in the context of COVID-19.

Friedländer says: “When COVID-19 emerged, it was a new risk that no one had data on and people struggled to understand. Since Discovery may have one of the largest integrated datasets in the world, our actuaries were able to solve this problem by analyzing the triggers and levers needed to change the mortality rate. Throughout the pandemic, it has been a priority for us to get our hands dirty with data to try and get better results.”

Wellbeing as part of a broader ESG agenda

At the heart of Discovery’s innovations is the idea of what it means to be a good person and society. This well-being extends not only to health care, but also to finance, infrastructure and the environment. Other Discovery innovations that won the Qorus Innovation in Insurance Awards included: Healthy Future Calculator, Motion Alert AND Pothole Patrol. The Healthy Futures Calculator analyzes individual clients’ unique biometrics to give them a holistic view of their health (including life expectancy and life expectancy) and provides personal, evidence-based recommendations and insights to improve both. Motion Alert uses telematics technology to determine when a vehicle may be stolen, alerting the owner and automatically initiating vehicle recovery services. Pothole Patrol, in partnership with insurance company Dialdirect and the City of Johannesburg, manages and repairs potholes to make roads safer with a pothole reporting app. Each of these innovations helps Discovery customers live better lives and make smarter decisions about various aspects of their well-being, as well as create added value for society as a whole.

What’s next

Looking to the future, Discovery’s commitment to innovation is not about to slow down. “We have successfully created revolutionary thinking throughout the business. Innovation is at the heart of our business and is institutionalized at all touchpoints with constant and active management support,” says Friedländer.

In the near future, Discovery will continue to focus on technology and personalization. Friedländer adds: “Technology continues to be a great tool for gathering data on behavior change. As humans, we need feedback to change behavior, and wearables provide us with this detailed and useful data in real time. Combined with our broader understanding of health data and trends, this has a powerful effect.

People are motivated by different things, which is why we continue to develop products that are personalized for each of our customers.”

Discovery is an example of what can be achieved when innovations are presented, implemented and applied in the insurance business in a consistent and purposeful manner. We congratulate them on being named our 2022 Innovator of the Year.

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