Resilience according to Xavier Veyry, Chief Executive Officer, APAC & Europe, AXA XL

What does “from risk to resilience” mean to you?

Over my two decades in insurance, I have noticed a very tangible shift in what resilience means to us, risk professionals. It means looking beyond our clients’ exposures today and projecting ourselves into the future by seeking to understand the increased number of emerging risks we are facing, and to anticipate and respond to them.

To me, there is a sense of purpose in the notion of resilience; purpose to foster the longevity and sustainability of our clients, our industry and our society. In today’s ultra-connected world, our clients’ operations can only become safer if we strive to increase collective resilience.

At AXA, our focus on resilience lies in our purpose to “act for human progress by protecting what matters”. What matters to our clients, of course; but what matters to society and, more broadly, to our ecological system.

How do you deal with disruption?

I learnt, while working in highly disruptive Asian economies where the pace of innovation can feel dizzying to those who stand still, that you cannot be afraid of disruption. You must embrace it and respond to it with agility and purpose to remain relevant. And for an organisation to remain relevant to its clients, or for an industry to remain relevant to society, it has to keep abreast of technological innovation and societal shifts and respond to it sooner and faster.

Looking back at a very trying 2020, I am proud to say that the European risk community has done exactly that. We saw risk managers seeking solutions to enable their organisation to support COVID-19 relief efforts, risk engineers coming up with innovative ways to survey clients’ sites despite travel restrictions and underwriters developing new solutions to allow companies to get back on their feet.

You will be taking part in the panel “ The Insurance Market post COVID-19”, what would you like the audience to remember after your session?

If the audience takes one thing away from the discussion, I hope it is this: the risk landscape is changing, and so is the scale of risk events. To survive and thrive in this environment, the risk community must learn to assimilate emerging risks and come up with solutions much faster. This can only be achieved if risk managers, brokers and insurers keep talking to one another candidly and transparently to understand each other’s expectations.

That is why events such as the FERMA Talks 2021 are extremely important. They allow our community to gather, albeit virtually, and discuss new risks, new tools, new expectations. I look forward to the panel and have my eyes on Copenhagen where I hope we will meet in person, next year, at the FERMA Forum.

Who’s Xavier Veyry, have a look at his biography

For more information about his panel session, click here