As we were putting this issue together, the news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II was announced. In recognition of Her Majesty’s extraordinary reign, we have included the tribute that you can read on the facing page.
In this special innovation-focused edition of The Actuary, we bring you a broad spectrum of what ‘innovation’ could entail.
In the technology space, Martijn Westra (p27) shares learnings from a recent one-day hackathon, and we also have a 101 in the metaverse (p28) and platform economics (p18).
Yiannis Parizas and Phanis Ioannou (p30) explore innovation through process: they go through an insurer’s pricing practice with a fine-tooth comb and look for potential ways of gaining an edge. Lisa Balboa and Tim Smith (p20) look to product innovation for ways to tackle the protection gap.
Innovation, simply, is the use of new ideas. The financial services industry is no stranger to behavioural science, especially in helping us to understand our customers. In this month’s cover feature, Maura Fedderson (p24) turns this idea on its head and discusses how we can apply behavioural science to ourselves.
Finally, what happens if we fail to innovate? In this month’s interview, Tan Suee Chieh and Paul Collier discuss just this (p14). We cannot retreat to safetyism, they say, when we should find the courage to move forward.
Ruolin Wang Editor [email protected]
