Interview Of The Week

Interview Of The Week: Marco Affonseca, InsurTech Hub Munich

InsurTech
Marco Affonseca

Who: Marco Affonseca is Head of Global Innovation at the InsurTech Hub Munich, which drives innovation to an ecosystem of 21 large insurance companies and cross-industry partners, startups, investors, universities, research institutions and governmental entities. Affonseca, a serial entrepreneur, has more than 12 years of experience working with Fortune 500 companies and startups, including leading high-performance teams in complex business projects as well as global innovation initiatives. 
 
Topic: Why some of the world’s largest insurance companies have joined forces and are trying a new approach to open innovation, culture change, and fostering collective know-how.

Quote:Corporates often have this misconception that open innovation projects should be free with cool office spaces and foosball tables, but actually it is the other way around. Innovation and startup collaboration are most successful when there is a consistent process, with constraints, budget, OKRs [objectives and key results] and with leaders that have been on the front lines of entrepreneurship.

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About the author

Jennifer L. Schenker

Jennifer L. Schenker, an award-winning journalist, has been covering the global tech industry from Europe since 1985, working full-time, at various points in her career for the Wall Street Journal Europe, Time Magazine, International Herald Tribune, Red Herring and BusinessWeek. She is currently the editor-in-chief of The Innovator, an English-language global publication about the digital transformation of business. Jennifer was voted one of the 50 most inspiring women in technology in Europe in 2015 and 2016 and was named by Forbes Magazine in 2018 as one of the 30 women leaders disrupting tech in France. She has been a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneers judge for 20 years. She lives in Paris and has dual U.S. and French citizenship.