FinTech Magazine December 2019 | Page 12

LEGAL & GENERAL FUTURE VENTURES

Maarten Ectors , Chief Innovation Officer at Legal & General , discusses his team ’ s approach to solving the most complex digital innovation problems

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A t the moment , we have more demand than we can handle ,” says Maarten Ectors , Chief Innovation Officer at Legal & General ( L & G ). But , for Ectors and his Future Ventures team , that is no bad thing . He , and the group of innovators he collaborates with , seek out and solve those most critical of business problems – and they answer them in weeks . Ectors has termed such challenges ‘ Harry Potter problems ’, the type of issues , he says , that “ businesses and organisations have tried , and failed , to solve and don ’ t know who to turn to for a solution . The only course of action left is to go to the innovator that might hold a magic wand in the shape of new technologies or business approaches to solve the problems faster , cheaper and more effectively than anyone else . We ’ re that innovator .”

Ectors joined L & G in June 2017 as Chief Digital Officer with a singular mission : to make insurance smart and exciting with the aim of disrupting the industry . It didn ’ t take long ; the company ’ s general insurance unit won awards for the most innovative home insurer and best claims technology solution – SmartClaim – of the year in 2018 . That same year ,
DECEMBER 2019