Last week Michael Heise already pointed to increasing digitalization and changing customer behavior as major challenges for 2012. How do you see this?

Joe Gross: Absolutely, digitalization is reshaping our world forever and this applies for every industry, and, yes, it is a challenge but even more so a huge opportunity for Allianz. Not only for 2012 but for many years to come, it will become a part of our DNA: how we do business, how we process, how we are set up and organized and how we think and act.

What does that mean for Allianz and its corporate culture?

Gross: We will need to adapt our culture. To succeed in the digital world we must evolve to a culture that rewards "bottom-up" innovation, speed and decision empowerment but also allows failures so we can learn how to do things better next time. Of course, we maintain our core strengths as an organization and culture - rigor, discipline and excellence in execution. We won't throw them away to run after a trend. Finding the right balance will be critical to our success.

How will customers experience Allianz in the future - digitally or otherwise?

Gross: In the digital world, customers are truly the king. They can control and choose how to get informed, whom to ask and whom to trust, where to shop and compare, and where and how to purchase. Their expectations are moving to "anytime, anywhere, anything". Allianz will need to provide all of this. From first class, honest and transparent information on the web e.g. owned content and sites but also social media and affinity sites.

We will need to be present where customers compare and make up their preferences like on insurance aggregators, and of course we must allow customers direct/digital purchase of our products and services. To be clear, this must all explicitly include our distribution partners like agents and brokers and not work against them.

Can you give a few examples of things you're working on to create that future?

Gross: The Allianz units have taken up the challenge and are driving digital transformation. From a Group side we are providing digital assets to support the transformation. For instance, our IT and market management people are working with Allianz units on a state-of-the-art "One Web" platform with a unique "open source" design approach. The first pilot Switzerland is close to completion, and other companies are lined up.

Operations and IT are also providing new tools and approaches on business intelligence which is critical to analyze the huge amounts of data that digitalization can generate. In market management, we are working with the Allianz companies to define and expand best practices on digital customer engagement. These are just a few examples of the comprehensive program we are pursuing.

Where can this already be experienced at Allianz? Where are changes visible today?

Gross: Allianz Germany has equipped all agents with homepages where they can engage in a dialogue with their clients and provide products and services. Pilots are also underway there to connect agents to social media. India and Brazil are working on generating leads for sales via social media, and Italy has successfully launched first modular offers to increase sales productivity as they are easy to sell and expand.

What needs to happen in 2012 to make it a good year for you?

Gross: A continued focus and investment into the digital transformation by the leadership of our companies. That - backed by operational efficiencies - is the key to profitable growth. This in conjunction with a focused Group-driven approach to support the transformation by providing (new) meaningful and impactful digital assets. All that would make 2012 a good year for our customers as well, as they are the ones who will have the tangible benefits of products more suited to their lives.


Joe Gross is the Global Head of Group Market Management at Allianz SE. Together with his team, Gross is responsible for supporting the local Allianz companies to build and protect the brand and to develop trusted relationship with clients. He studied business administration in Frankfurt and Berkeley and has been with Allianz since 2002.


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