President Jeon Young-mook of Samsung Life Insurance (7th from the left) conducted the final presentation of the 3rd batch of in-house startups. (Photo by Samsung Life Insurance)
[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] Samsung Life Insurance is attracting attention by carrying out various innovative activities that break the existing framework.
After Youngmook Jeon, CEO of Samsung Life Insurance, expressed his intention to accelerate innovation in his New Year's address earlier this year, stating, "When the business environment changes, the success formula must also be newly created," it is being evaluated that this has led to various innovative activities within the company.
Since last year, Samsung Life Insurance has been operating the ‘Samsung Life Insurance In-house Startup.’ The in-house startup is an innovation organization introduced to spread a ‘bottom-up’ innovation culture led directly by employees and to enable various ideas to be executed quickly.
Every half year, an idea contest is held for employees, and 2 to 3 teams are selected through evaluation. The selected teams work for three months in a separate workspace called I-Lab, where they concretize their business plans.
So far, a total of seven teams have been selected, and ideas from five of these teams are at the commercialization stage. The ‘Insurance Claim Retrieval Service,’ selected as the first in-house startup idea, is preparing to open the system in August.
Other projects under commercialization include building a metaverse branch, the nutritional supplement recommendation platform ‘Filamento,’ and a mental care platform. The fourth round, scheduled for the second half of this year, will select ideas through an open evaluation involving all employees.
Since November last year, the ‘Samsung Life Insurance Idea Forest,’ a continuous idea proposal channel where employees can freely exchange ideas, has been in operation. Over the past six months, about 600 employees have participated, proposing over 500 ideas. This shows the employees’ determination to innovate Samsung Life Insurance across various fields, from internal marketing and digital innovation to product development.
The health promotion product launched last April, ‘Yukwae Tongkwae Health Insurance Watch4U,’ is also known to have been named through a contest held on the Idea Forest, with the product name directly suggested by employees. Even the comprehensive guide sent to customers was renewed by reflecting suggestions from the Idea Forest, such as the status of designated agent claims and accident insurance claim methods. Additionally, various ideas such as subscription insurance, sports marketing, and new customer acquisition plans have been proposed through the Idea Forest.
Samsung Life Insurance’s innovation has brought significant changes not only to employees but also to the executives’ meeting culture. To attempt innovation in the decision-making process, a ‘Red Team’ has been introduced and operated in internal executive meetings. The ‘Red Team’ is an innovation method that deliberately voices opposition during decision-making to act as a constructive critic.
Originating from the U.S. military’s mock war exercises where friendly forces are called the Blue Team and enemy forces the Red Team, the Red Team’s role is to identify vulnerabilities and attack to check the opponent’s strategy.
Through this, the company is breaking away from a culture where criticism was uncomfortable and improvement ideas were formally accepted in existing meetings, establishing an organizational culture that encourages healthy criticism and actively shares and accepts new perspectives.
A Samsung Life Insurance official stated, “We will continue efforts to establish a bottom-up innovation method where employees directly participate in management activities by continuously promoting various innovation methods such as in-house startups and the Idea Forest, and transform the culture to work from the customer’s perspective.”
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