Discovery - February 2020

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

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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

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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