Together with her team, Abigail Little – a Trainee Underwriter on the Hiscox graduate scheme – scooped the top prize in KPMG’s Insurance Innovation Challenge with an app that ‘insures’ you have a good experience.
How did you hear about the KPMG Insurance Innovation Challenge and what are its aims?
I’m part of the Next Generation Insurance Network and saw an advert for the KPMG Challenge which was looking for a diverse range of participants in terms of age, gender and ethnicity. I was accepted on the Challenge which took place in Huckletree in London’s Shoreditch in mid-April.
The aim of the KPMG Insurance Innovation Challenge was to spend a day investigating and debating the question, ‘In 2030, what risks will individuals seek protection from and how will they achieve this?’
How did the day run?
Experts from different industries presented ideas to help stimulate creativity and cross industry learning. We were then put in teams to develop a strategy to ‘overcome’ the industry challenge which we presented back to a panel of judges from across the industry. The only instruction for the day was that you couldn’t disclose your role or title which ensured everyone would feel comfortable contributing.
What was your team’s big idea?
We discussed how people are moving away from owning possessions. Past generations would own a house in their 20’s whilst my generation continue to rent. We are also seeing this trend with other things such as our mobile phone/tech, cars and household white goods where many of us choose to lease rather than buy.
We asked the question, ‘if we aren’t investing our money in owning tangible property then what are we spending it on?’. We concluded that people are spending more of their disposable income on experiences such as holidays, concerts and even meals out with friends. So, we thought, is there a way of developing an insurance product that would cover the enjoyment of those events? Perhaps you save all year for a dream holiday but the weather turns bad and the holiday is a washout. What if a dinner at that Michelin starred restaurant was not as tasty as you’d hoped?
Our answer was an insurance app – Ezee Life – that serves as an on-demand, reward-driven insurance product. You buy a policy for each event – perhaps the app is linked to your Outlook calendar and prompts you to buy cover – and if the event doesn’t come up to scratch, Ezee Life pays out. It would be linked to some sort of rating system where a number of people would need to rate an event before there was a payout – similar to how Uber drivers are rated by users. There could also be a loyalty award system for those who didn’t make claims.
You won, so what did the judges particularly like?
They liked our idea and thought it very different to those from the other groups in terms of how we were really thinking ahead.
...and what did you get out of the day?
Being new to the industry I’m interested in what my career might look like in 20-30 years, so the opportunity to bounce ideas off such a diverse range of people was really valuable. I’d definitely like to do something similar and I’ll keep in close contact with my team.
Did you get a prize?
We were taken out for dinner.
So how would you have rated the dinner on Ezee Life?
I’d give it an 8 out of 10. It was very nice so no claim would be necessary (and we didn’t pay for it either!).
