Thoughts of Wilma

We have had an eventful year. A year with lots of ups and downs. Many people are now a bit "corona-tired". Besides a lot of misery, fortunately a lot of beautiful things have happened. It is fascinating to see how each person reacts in his or her own way to the events of the world. It is important to realize that we as human beings do not get upset by things themselves, but rather by the way we look at things. How do we look at a situation? From psychology, we know how the same situation can evoke a different Read more ...

We are not going to make it with a “business-as-usual”. That is why, for our annual board symposium with decision-makers from Achmea (The Netherlands), Caser (Spain), Covéa (France), Gothaer (Germany), Länsförsäkringar (Sweden), LocalTapiola (Finland), Reale Group (Italy) and la Mobilière (Switzerland), we have taken the opportunity with both hands to contemplate on "business-as-it-could-be". What does that look like? What are the possibilities to solve the biggest problems of our time? How can we, as mutual insurers, make a meaningful contribution to the health of society? This year a physical meeting was impossible, and we faced a big challenge of making Read more ...

Working from home and discussing a lot via Zoom or Teams is not as stress-free as it sounds. It literally hurts your brain. Many people experience how exhausting it is to go from one virtual meeting to another. Stanford University calls it VCF – video conferencing fatique. Professor Jeremy Bailenson came to this term after researching thousands of people as test subjects for the use of Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Hangouts. COVID-19 has us firmly glued to the screen. On the one hand, virtual working is a blessing. On the other hand, a concern. It is nice to be Read more ...

The impact of COVID-19 on people and society is considerable. When I look at what I am experiencing around me, it looks like a lot of people are in some kind spiral of fear. They're overwhelmed with stress. As a result, they experience an increase in anxiety, poor sleeping patterns, nervousness, being touchy and irritable, and difficulty relaxing.  There is also a group of people who think that the COVID-19 does not exist at all. For them, things are not as difficult. The key question for me is: how are we going to find a new balance in a world Read more ...

“A crisis is an opportunity riding the dangerous wind”. The corona crisis, once again, confirmed to me the truth of this Chinese proverb. The Covid-19 pandemic has knocked on my door no less than three times in person. The first time, it surprised me like virtually everyone else in the world, with the unexpected attack on the health of millions of people worldwide and grinding to a halt of the entire global economy. The second time, I had the fright of my life after an unfortunate fall down the stairs. Anyone who knows me a little, knows that with a Read more ...

As a former top athlete, I was not so nimble, but strong. It was all about physical strength, speed and endurance. The ability to move quickly and easily wasn’t called “agility” in those days even though I see a lot of similarities between sports and business. In a world of accelerating change, increasing complexity and rising polarization between people, we need to find new ways to unlock ourselves from slow-moving. We need to keep an open mind and anticipate solution for tomorrow’s challenges. To nurture that change, leadership style, change management and culture are main drivers to shape agility. They Read more ...

Nowadays, everybody is talking about agility. Companies around the world are trying to follow this new way of rapidly adapting to changes while operating in a productive environment. But behind every company, there are human beings. In the end, no business goals, no departments and also no budgets, can embrace agility – it has to be embraced by the employees. It is simple: A company can’t change by itself; it has to be done by the people. And this means that people need to be open for new things, open for changes, open for innovation. If this is not the Read more ...

At the end of last year, I had to undergo a surgery on my knee. I had to take it slow for a while and walk with crutches first. My knee was not ready to get back to my daily routine. In some sense, I was not completely free to do what I usually do. But I had finally time to bring my soul and my body in a good balance again. In my opinion, this is very important to pick up the energy that is so needed in our fast-turning business world. However, I also learned something more: Finding Read more ...

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 ...