– When I took over this role at SEB Pension & Insurance just over a year ago, I wasn’t quite sure what it would entail. But I have had to develop it on my own. I have automated the quantitative part of the monitoring of the environment and built up the qualitative analysis. In addition, I have become responsible for the sustainability work within SEB Pension & Insurance.

This is how Per Georgzén talks about his work. He has just received the Swedish Insurance Association’s Young Talent award in 2016, with the justification of having “established a clear structure based on customer insights in the monitoring of the environment and supplemented with competitor analyses in prioritized development areas. Per has also found new ways to communicate his area through e.g. automated market analyses and webinars. Per is driven, but is also analytical and has an entrepreneurial mindset, which drives SEB Pension & försäkring to always start from the customer and its experience.”

Moved from quantitative to qualitative analysis

– Previously, a large part of the job was on the quantitative part. As I have automated it, there has been much more time for the qualitative analyses. This means I can put more effort into monitoring consumer and technology trends, as well as doing competitor analysis. The charm of this job is that it is so varied and that I can be involved and influence different parts of the business.

Per works a lot on behalf of various units within SEB Pension & Insurance. That way, he gets to be active with issues that concern both the present and the future. At the same time, it is about being proactive. He produces weekly newsletters and appears regularly on the intranet. The Importance of Flexibility as An Entrepreneur

May become more visible

The sustainability part is now emerging as an important part of Per’s work.

– These are questions that are very much in time. Both the customers and society in general demand our view. And as a financial actors, we have the opportunity to influence.

The sustainability issues are of a long-term nature and SEB has done a lot in this area in past years. But Per admits that they may not have been so visible. It is important to collect what you do and communicate the results.

– When we compare ourselves to what other banks are doing in the area of ​​sustainability, we come out very well. But within SEB Pension & Insurance, we have to compare ourselves with other insurance companies.

Besides work, it is football and ice hockey that capture Per’s interest. Apart from travel, animals and nature and culture, of course. But right now, the focus is mostly on changing residence from Uppsala to Stockholm.

No conscious choice

How did it happen that Per started at SEB?

– After high school, I chose not to immediately start university. Instead, I alternated between working and traveling for four years.

Only then were their studies for five years in Uppsala, including six months in Athens. A bachelor’s and a master’s in business administration were enough before he entered SEB’s trainee program in the fall of 2014. Although there he got to try different parts of the bank’s operations, it was at SEB Pension & Försäkring that he got his permanent position from the very beginning.

– I can’t say that it was a conscious choice to work with insurance, but there is absolutely nothing that I have regretted. On the contrary!

Three challenges

We get into the insurance industry’s challenges, seen from Per’s perspective. He notices how responsibility increasingly shifts from society to the individual.

– It is important to get everyone on the train so that they get the chance for good protection and a pension. The industry must therefore focus on simplifying and becoming more customized. It is a huge challenge to help customers in this transition. To myself, I say that I am at work every day to do something good for our customers!

Another challenge for traditional insurance companies is how they should relate to the innovative players who enter the market. This new world is characterized by mobility and flexibility. The question you have to think about, according to Per, in which technology will go home with consumers. At the same time, he states that many of the older companies suffer from complex systems.

Per sees the need for advice as a third challenge.

– You could say that this is the traditional companies’ niche. Here it is important for us to highlight the importance of advice, something that the customer will not benefit from until maybe forty years from now! Of course, it is the case that customers differ and not everyone is in need of advice. The goal is to be there for all our customers with different services depending on what the customer is asking for.

Speaking of the future, what do you see yourself doing in five years?

– I have two tracks. One is that I want to test what it’s like to be a leader. The second about what it’s like to work in another country. I would also like to move closer to the customer. But what is clear is that I enjoy myself here at SEB Pension & Insurance and that I would like to continue in the industry, says Per in conclusion.