As part of its ongoing efforts to lead the transformation of the insurance industry and deliver the best possible customer service to its policyholders, MAPFRE has announced it is updating its innovation model. The new model, MAPFRE Innovación, is already operational and will serve as a strategic guide for the coming years.

Spain’s leading insurance company—the sixth largest in Europe and the largest multinational in Latin America—has taken a step forward in its commitment to innovation through this model. With it, the company aims to increase agility, encourage collaboration, and maximize the effectiveness of company initiatives.

At MAPFRE, innovation is viewed as a strategic tool for creating business value, mitigating risks, and exploring long-term opportunities. MAPFRE Innovation has a clear vision: It’s a key driver of MAPFRE’s development, allowing the company to predict market changes and develop features that set it apart from the competition. It plays a major role in reducing uncertainty by providing solutions that address the priorities of the strategic plan. It also accelerates the cultural transformation toward a more agile, transversal, innovative, and open organization.

The new model was designed by drawing on the lessons learned in recent years and a thorough review of the original innovation model, which helped identify key challenges and opportunities for improvement.

Structured around four key pillars

1. Understanding the strategic context and challenges of each country and business unit.

2. Coordinating an open, distributed innovation model that aligns with the Group’s strategy.

3. Complementing the work of the specialized areas that focus on innovation, including the technology, data and AI, operations, and business areas.

4. Managing an innovation portfolio that aligns with the strategic exploration priorities and ensures the creation of shared value for MAPFRE.

MAPFRE will continue working and collaborating with start-ups to develop proofs of concept, pilot programs, and scalable projects quickly and efficiently, ensuring that innovation directly impacts the regions where it operates and, ultimately, its customers. The initiatives will be more closely tied to the business, contributing directly to the company’s strategic plan, as well as to the plans of each country and business unit.

In addition to these mechanisms, the model also includes intrapreneurship initiatives, collaboration with consortia and universities, CESVIMAP as a driver of R&D in Mobility, direct investments in startups that align with the company’s vision and strategy, and business intelligence and venture capital initiatives.

“MAPFRE Innovation is the natural evolution of the work we’ve been doing since launching our first open innovation model in 2018” explains Leire Jiménez, Chief Innovation Officer at MAPFRE. “The model is a key lever in the company’s transformation, supported by a dedicated, diverse, transversal, and multidisciplinary team, along with the methodology and funding needed to execute high-value projects identified by different areas. We work within the framework of the strategic plan, providing scalable solutions, while also helping to identify threats and seize early opportunities that drive MAPFRE’s growth,” she adds.