Sustainability Report 2012 - Generali Versicherung AG

innovation) and detailed information is provided on theactions the Group proposes to take to achieve them; forgreater clarity, the activity or performance indicators to beused to monitor the results achieved are also specified.The Charter of Commitments also includes the 2013-2015 environmental objectives and targets defined inaccordance with the procedures of the EnvironmentalManagement System. The Board of Directors of the ParentCompany will, henceforth, commit strongly to achievingthese objectives and targets.The results obtained in the previous year will be accuratelychecked on an annual basis, assessed on the basis of theindicators monitored, and objectives and commitmentswill be reintroduced for the subsequent three-year period.For the above reasons, the Charter of Commitmentsalso constitutes a tool for increasing the transparencyof communications with all stakeholders, who canobjectively verify, year after year, whether, and to whatextent, the Group has fulfilled the commitments outlinedin the document.MATERIAL ISSUESInnovationThe Generali Group believes innovation is a driver forsustaining the competitive advantage of its brand overtime; therefore, it has always made innovation central toall its development efforts and is committed to creatingand promoting a genuine culture of innovation internally.The Central Innovation Team (CIT) has been given anactive role in carrying out this task. The CIT is a groupof internal consultants dedicated to innovation and whoprovide tools to support a customer-centric structure, inorder to make it easier to share knowledge throughoutthe Group, and manage a portfolio of strategic, global andlong-term innovation projects, which allow the Group toconstantly enhance its competitive position.Innovation is therefore managed through the sharingof knowledge on innovative products, businessmodels, services and processes already present onthe market or in Group companies, and customercentricity, targeted at recognising expressed or latentcustomer needs and, through their stimuli, at thedevelopment of ideas for insurance and financialsolutions that meet these needs in a new way andtherefore differentiate the Group on the market.These activities are carried out prior to the feasibilityanalysis and before the actual implementation of theconcepts created, which will first translate to a pilotproject, then to operating projects that can be rolled outin the different environments in which the Generali Groupoperates. In fact, the approach to innovation involves aninitial phase in which the most innovative and promisingideas are tested. This work method has a dual effect:on one hand, investments can be reduced considerably,limiting them to the prototype in the event the test isunsuccessful and, on the other hand, it is possible todevelop and simultaneously test a balanced portfolio oflow investment and quickly realisable solutions comparedto the most sophisticated, innovative and medium/long-term ideas, in this way increasing the chances ofsuccess.The development and implementation of innovative ideasinvolves several Group employees. The employees arearranged into teams and follow an on-the-job trainingprogramme which sees them work on real cases tobe launched on the market and not on simulations.Their skills and expertise and, sometimes, their originand cultural background differ: diversification representsa strength, given it contrasts different approaches andviews and, at the same time, requires a structuredprocess, which allows participants to interact with acommon language and a shared way of working andallows ideas to be created and developed naturally andeffectively.The Group has used various channels over the years todisseminate and promote innovation internally: themebasedmeetings and focus groups support the recentnetworking initiatives - consisting of the setting up of ateam site and a quarterly e-zine (digital magazine) devotedentirely to innovation and usable by all Group employees -in which the level of knowledge sharing and collaborationis much higher. In fact, everyone can actively contributewith articles that recount their personal experiences anddetail the results obtained, hence also stimulating thecreation of new ideas.The actions implemented to reach said objectiveinvolve examining the market to identify the needs andexpectations of some customer segments interested inenvironmental and social issues, and make reference tospecific projects described in the chapter Clients, sectionCustomer centricity initiatives of this document.Mondadori headquarter - Cascina Tregorezzo, Milan, Italythe group | 35