9
April 2018
Starting time: 12:30 PM CEST
Ending time: April 10, 2018 12:30 PM CEST
AXA held the seventh meeting of its Stakeholder Advisory Panel on April 9th and 10th in Paris.
External panelists: Yolanda Kakabadse, Maria Ressa, Sangu Delle, Nicholas Eberstadt and Andrew Kuper
Members of AXA’s Board: Denis Duverne (Chairman of AXA’s Board), Angelien Kemna
AXA management: Thomas Buberl (CEO), George Stansfield (Deputy CEO and Group General Secretary), Jad Ariss (Group Head of Public Affairs & Corporate Responsibility) and Nicolas Pfohl (Executive Assistant to Group Head of Public Affairs & Corporate Responsibility).
Yolanda Kakabadse and Andrew Kuper participated to their last meeting with the Panel. Thomas Buberl seized this opportunity to express his warm thanks to both of them and his appreciation of their contribution during their 3-year mandates.
This session was mainly dedicated to AXA innovation roadmap. In addition, panelists have been invited to share their insights and comments regarding specific initiatives engaged by AXA: AXA Research Fund, Future of Learning and Circular Economy.
Guillaume Borie, AXA Group Chief Innovation Officer and Stephane Guinet, Founder and Managing Partner of Kamet – AXA’s start-up studio, presented the recently adopted innovation strategy of the Group. As a case study, a deep-dive on Kamet’s business model and portfolio of initiatives has been discussed with the panelists.
The panel’s view was that incremental innovation is better achieved within operational entities, while disruptive innovation is better developed outside operational entities, which confirms the relevance of Kamet. The adoption of disruptive innovations by AXA entities might be accelerated by promoting competition, with Kamet offering its solutions not only to AXA entities but also to other market players.
Concerning AXA innovation ecosystem, panelists have raised the question of diversity, encouraging the Group to select varied profiles, who will ultimately raise overall creativity.
After a status-update on the 10-year history of the AXA Research Fund and of its 2018-2022 strategy, debates focused on the potential levers existing to increase the value created by the Fund. Several proposals were made either to enhance the Fund’s attractiveness for scientists or to better leverage the complementarity of the Fund’s research activities with the Group’s business needs.
While continuous education has become a crucial need for all AXA staff at all hierarchical levels, panelists discussed AXA’s ambition to become a “self-learning organization”. They insisted on the need to develop a segmented approach to learning within AXA’s employee population.
Panelists acknowledged that, if based on a robust scientific approach, AXA engagement in favor of circular economy could bring much value for the AXA brand. Exemplary regarding our operations is a prerequisite for further initiatives or engagement (e.g. promote the reduction of plastic wastes).