26 Nov 2020

“Innovation and digital transformation” is one of the three pillars on which Generali’s 2021 strategy is built. These concepts are also of fundamental importance to the industry due to changes in customer behaviour, expectations, and advances in technology over the last decade. Given the acceleration of digital transformation, we thought it was timely to explore this important topic and how the Asian region is faring.

The Asian Century

We have entered the ‘Asian Century,’ according to data tallied by the FT last year. It predicted that by 2020, Asian economies will be larger than the rest of the world combined for the first time since the 19^th century[1].

Asia’s rise has been swift. In 2000, the region accounted for just over a third of world output[2]. By 2030, it is expected to contribute more than half of global consumption growth according to the Mckinsey[3].

Several factors have been driving this transformation. The first is the shift to intraregionalisation where from 2000 to 2017, intraregional trade in Asia quadrupled while global trade grew 2.8 times[4]. The second is the rise of corporate Asia, as many firms in the region have become global players. For example, in the 2020 Global Fortune 500 rankings, 218 companies were Asian[5]. The third is sweeping technological innovation, where Asia is now the largest consumer of technology as well as a leading producer.

A leader in digital transformation

According to Bloomberg, the role of technological innovation in Asia’s meteoric rise is only going to accelerate with an estimated 70% of new economic value created over the next decade based on digitally enabled platforms[6].

Decades ago, this may have meant that the region would be vulnerable to domination by large tech companies from the US, but many of the world’s largest tech companies and influential SMEs are based in Asia. Examples of these companies are China’s Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba, Indonesia’s Gojek and India’s Tata Consultancy. These companies are driving innovation in all facets of digital business.

Equally many governments in Asia are ambitious and committed to digital strategy development and implementation. Some Asian countries are outpacing the US, UK, and Australia in terms of infrastructure such as 5G mobile coverage, fibre optic deployment and average broadband speeds.

Further to this, a report by EY points out that while the Asia-Pacific is lagging in digital transformation maturity today, it will be a leading force in two years’ time. The report explores how a strong customer focus, investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud, commitment to innovation, and hard work to plug the skills gap are factors driving this rapid transformation.

What this means for Generali Asia

In fact, a lot of this reflects how we view digital transformation at Generali Asia. Our ambition is to become a lifetime partner to our customers and distributors and to achieve this we are focusing on digitising our services and enhancing the customer experience through big data and innovation. This includes digitising the agent’s entire workflow, from recruiting customers to managing sales leads and assisting with claims.

We are also looking more closely at A.I. While many of our processes are already being managed by robotic process automation, we are moving to A.I in areas where there is a need, such as superior data analytics. For example, Future Generali has become a major user of AI-powered chatbots for customer servicing.

Central to our efforts towards becoming lifetime partners to our customers is building a culture of innovation which also serves to attract and engage the best new talents. In fact, throughout our history in Asia, Generali has attracted people who are entrepreneurial and want to be part of our growth story. Over the last decade, as we continue our transformation into an agile and digital organisation, these characteristics have translated well to establishing a culture of innovation and customer centricity.

Digitalisation is a must have for businesses to create lifetime relationships with customers and sustain profitable growth. Since Asia is very much leading digital transformation, this presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the many companies in the region to grow alongside their customers by adopting new technologies and driving innovation.

[1] https://www.ft.com/content/520cb6f6-2958-11e9-a5ab-ff8ef2b976c7

[2] https://www.ft.com/content/520cb6f6-2958-11e9-a5ab-ff8ef2b976c7

[3] https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/asia-pacific/asias-future-is-now

[4] https://www.ft.com/paidpost/mckinsey/welcome-to-the-asian-century.html

[5] http://news.samsungcnt.com/samsung-ct-fortune-global-500/

[6] https://sponsored.bloomberg.com/news/sponsors/axa-investment-managers/whats-driving-asias-digital-evolution/?adv=19141&prx_t=R3QFAlow-AUt8PA