Balancing individual identity with global expansion
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Balancing individual identity with global expansion WRITTEN BY
SHANNON LEWIS PRODUCED BY
JUSTIN BRAND
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DISCOVERY LIMITED
We speak to Anton Fatti, Chief Digital Officer at Discovery Limited, about how the company balances the identity and innovation practices of local branches with expansion as a global brand
F
ounded in 1992, Discovery Limited is a diversified insurance and financial services organisation. Discovery began in South
Africa as a small, specialist risk insurer, and has since 04
expanded to major markets across the globe. As an organisation with innovation at its core, Discovery uses a mix of technology and best practice to generate value for clients, employees and shareholders alike. “The core innovation that Discovery has pioneered internationally is the concept of a sharedvalue insurance model,” explains Chief Digital Officer, Anton Fatti. Fatti has been with Discovery for seven years. With a background in computer science and applied maths, as well as an interest in ‘big picture’ business practices, he has experience in developing tech and scaling strategy at small technology companies. In his work at Discovery, he applies many of his learnings from the startup world. “What drew me to Discovery was the real aim of improving society,” he says. “It’s a higher purpose at the core of Discovery
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DISCOVERY LIMITED
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that guides our decisions.” Discovery
As Discovery has expanded globally,
is a values-driven company where it’s
its focus has remained human-centric,
common to find employees with 10 to
from internal processes to client
20 years’ tenure, for example. Currently,
outreach. Through its Vitality shared-
Fatti oversees the central team in the
value model, Discovery has built the
Digital Lab, advising the business on
world’s largest behavioural platform,
digital best practice and exploring new
which turns actuarially driven insight
technologies and digitally enabled busi-
into behaviour change that benefits
ness models. “Digital transformation
both the client and the insurer. “We’ve
is not something flashy for the sake of
demonstrated the broad applicability
technology. It underlies the business
of our model,” Fatti says, “and we’re
value, with operational efficiency, client-
recognised as global thought leaders in
centricity and innovation as the key
the field.” From a digital transformation
drivers,” Fatti notes.
standpoint, the focus is on scalability.
“ Positioning technology is not something flashy for the sake of technology. It’s for underlying business value” — Anton Fatti Chief Digital Officer, Discovery Limited
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘ADRIAN GORE, DISCOVERY GROUP CEO – IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABILITY FOR DISCOVERY’ 07 Discovery, launched in the early 90s, is not a digital-native organisation, meaning technology has to integrate into existing structures. “It’s not about transforming the business model so much as augmenting the success of what we have already achieved,” Fatti adds. Belief in the company’s intellectual property and an ambitious vision to lead a global health transformation define expansion at Discovery. This vision is expressed in the pledge from the Vitality network of insurers to make one hundred million people 20% more active by 2025. To expand without w w w.di sc o ve r y.c o .z a /p or t a l
DISCOVERY LIMITED
losing sight of core beliefs, Discovery makes decisions unique to the needs of each country it operates in. The business balances fully owned subsidiaries, as it has in the UK, with equity investments, such as those with Ping An Health in China, and partnerships with insurers and other financial services companies across the rest of the world. “Our global Vitality One platform allows us to give each market their own configurable Vitality environment,” Fatti comments, “so they can focus 08
on their market-specific differentiators.” The company values innovation by the partner markets, encouraging individual growth while being aware
which means we are able to easily con-
of integration potential. Everything
figure and reconfigure how the platform
goes through a curation and validation
works and how it supports the specific
process, for example. Client insight
needs of each market. So, it is based on
is embedded into the early stages of
configuration rather than coding,” Fatti
projects, too. “If you think about the
states. Discovery is primarily a Java-
shared-value model, it’s fundamentally
based company that relies heavily on
about engaging clients. If we can’t
technologies provided by established
do that in an effective way, the model
vendors such as Oracle, Microsoft
breaks down,” explains Fatti.
and IBM. As Discovery expands inter-
To expand effectively, Discovery
nationally, this architecture is being
leans on technology, relying on reus-
augmented with open source and
able platform components. “We use
cloud technologies to enable rapid
a modern model-driven architecture,
delivery of new business capabilities
“ It’s not about transforming the business model so much as augmenting the success of what we have already achieved” — Anton Fatti Chief Digital Officer, Discovery Limited
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Anton Fatti Anton Fatti is the Chief Digital Officer for Discovery, leading the enterprise-wide digital transformation strategy, incorporating disruptive technologies and approaches to enhance Discovery’s business model and create new competitive differentiators. Anton has a background in technology, management consulting and product management. He started his career as a software engineer in London’s financial services industry, and after completing his MBA worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company in Johannesburg.
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and decentralisation of information. “As much as possible, we’ll try to choose open-source technologies with enterprise-grade support.” Fatti adds. It takes company-wide skill to balance the desire to maintain a cohesive global model with the need to allow a degree of local identity and innovation in individual markets. Initially, one of the challenges around Discovery’s expansion was the amount of work the growth generated for the central team. “We were trying to pare down the depend12
ency on that central platform team and empower our partner markets instead,” Fatti says.
“ From a technology perspective, we’re really seeing this move from what we call ‘the connected self’ to ‘the quantified self’” — Anton Fatti Chief Digital Officer, Discovery Limited
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Now, the system runs more smoothly thanks to the adoption of an accreditation process. “We provide our partners
international business footprint while allowing room for individual innovation. “One of the key differentiators we
with guidance, best practice, and
have at Discovery is our culture of
access to the platform, but we’re not
innovation,” Fatti comments. Innovation
constraining any innovators just to scale
has remained integral to the company’s
this model internationally. We allow
mentality since its foundation, with a
markets to run at their own pace and
particular focus on talent and creativ-
leverage the innovation of the entire
ity. Research and development within
community,” Fatti adds. Ultimately, it
the business is undertaken with true
comes down to having the flexibility to
independence, with its own innova-
meet the needs of a variety of markets
tion cycles and product enhancement
and leveraging uniformity across the
solutions. Discovery uses data and w w w.di sc o ve r y.c o .z a /p or t a l
DISCOVERY LIMITED
1992
Year founded
$2bn Revenue in US dollars
8,484 14
Number of employees
analytics to drive insight and innovate at the pace and scale it requires. To empower teams to stay innovative, Fatti relies on his background in startups and looks to foster a cutting-edge environment and flexible mindset. Naturally, Discovery had to position itself at the forefront of innovation in response to an industry that is becoming increasingly competitive. The financial and banking industry has, in recent history, taken well to
tech innovations, but the insurance space is also catching up through partner-funded startups and innovative individuals. “Discovery continues to invest heavily in innovation,” Fatti says. “The key thing I’m advocating, and which we’re seeing an increasing appetite for, is a breakdown of silos between product innovation and technology.” Strategy-wise, Discovery is looking ahead to technological trends around big data, automation, and deep learning. As an early adopter of telematics, the company values data science capability and embraces the rise of connected devices. “From a technology perspective, we’re seeing this move from what we call ‘the connected self’ to ‘the quantified self’,” Fatti says. Discovery is developing expertise in micro-personalisation models, AI, and machine learning as foundations for this emerging era of technology. “Ultimately,” he concludes, “it’s about empowering each of our businesses to run as fast as it can.”
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Discovery Limited 155 West Street PO Box 786722 Sandton South Africa 2146 T +27 11 529 2888 www.discovery.co.za/portal