Thoughts of Wilma

A few weeks ago Eurapco organised the team offsite meeting. It is the perfect moment to review what we are doing as a company and a team. It also helps to just reconnect outside of the environment of the office. I have found that every year, this offsite meeting brings new energy to the team. But this meeting also made me think about our company values. Company values can shape an organization. They are becoming much more important nowadays. Not only when it comes to driving a team in the right direction, but also for employer branding. Many millennials are Read more ...

What is Agile? Agile software development refers to a group of software development methodologies based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. Agile methods or Agile processes generally promote a disciplined project management process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability, a set of engineering best practices intended to allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals (cPrime, 2018). This definition of Agile is closely related to software development, but it is being Read more ...

According to the Global Gender Report female talent is under-used and undervalued. Men’s wages are rising faster and further and at this rate it will take another 217 years before pay is equal. A crazy statistic to introduce this month’s topic of diversity at the workplace. To me, men and women are the same in the workplace. Whether you are a man or a woman, I need you for what you are good at, for your skills. In many of our companies and even countries a cultural change is needed to make this kind of thinking common. What's important is Read more ...

The insurance industry is changing at a pace we have never encountered before, and we have to change along with it in order to remain relevant and on top of our game. To achieve excellence within these changes we all need to develop, not only on a company level but also on a personal level. So how can we do this? Today I am proud to tell you about the Eurapco Academy. The Eurapco Academy has developed several programmes relevant to today’s market challenges. It is business focused and was created to provide our Partners with state-of-the art further education and development Read more ...

We hear great things about the future. We won’t have to drive anymore as mobility innovates, less people will live with hunger, and more people will live longer because of medical advancement. At some point we might not even have to think anymore! But are we ready for this change? Our current welfare models are not built for people living for such a long time. At the same time young people don’t have the financial literacy to deal with these new models and ways of getting money. Financial literacy means being able to use knowledge and skills to manage financial Read more ...

This month of the year you are highly likely setting goals, or reviewing the ones you had. You are considering ending a bad habit or starting a new, good one. Well, if I can be of any help, please keep reading. A couple of weeks ago I re-read the book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ by Steven Covey. This very famous book presents 7 habits successful people have. They are the following: Be proactive Begin with the end in mind Put first things first Think win-win Seek first to understand, and then to be understood Synergize Sharpen the Read more ...

Dear friends, I want to write this blog to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Below you can watch my short video message in which I sum up some of the things Eurapco has done this past year. We celebrated our 25 anniversary and we created more focus in order to connect experts. I invite you to take this time to reconnect with someone that could use your help. Try buying a present for someone you haven’t spoken to in a while, it might surprise them and you might make their day. But most of all, Read more ...

Nowadays, everyone talks about robots and everybody agrees on the big impact of the digital improvements in the upcoming years. In line with this, insurtech is a very urgent and inevitable topic. Over the last years digitalisation has become a large part of our everyday lives. Given that the integration of technology has been so rapid, our industry was bound to be affected. That’s why Eurapco organised the Eurapco Board Symposium 2017 to identify actions that have been taken and also those which can be further implemented in the future by the eight Eurapco Partners. This event was organised to Read more ...

Come rain or shine, I feel fine! HackZurich 2017 From 15 till 17 September 2017, HackZurich took place. With over 500 participants from over 50 countries it is the largest and most prestigious hackathon in Europe. During this hackathon, the participants spent over 40 hours working on highly innovative prototypes for web, mobile and desktop applications. Eurapco, Swissre and IBM teamed up to sponsor the event. We created a promotional stand where participants could learn about us and take pictures in our photobooth. They got to take home some goodies such as umbrellas and sunglasses and we encouraged them to Read more ...

The past couple of months the Eurapco Alliance has been celebrating its 25 year anniversary. 25 years of collaboration between the Partners, what an achievement! To celebrate this, some of the Eurapco team and myself travelled to all the Partner offices with a stand. We set up the stand for a day and welcomed anyone to come and celebrate, explore and become part of the network. What a feat! Logistically it was an experience with lots of learning points. That is why I would like to thank everyone from the Partners who helped make this experience incredible. Thank you to Read more ...