theceomagazine.com | 93Gert describes himself as a loyal employee,
having only ever worked for Accenture and
Baloise. Carsten also has a wealth of
corporate knowledge at Baloise. He joined
in 2002, after earning a degree in business
management, a PhD in financial management
and working as a consultant to banks and
insurance companies. Carsten says one of the
main developments while at Baloise is its
successful adoption of a system called ‘target
customer management’. This has allowed
Baloise to share risk among its client base,
while also ensuring consistent profitability.
For Gert, an ongoing challenge has been
ensuring Baloise’s 7,500 staff, who are spread
across multiple locations, are all pulling in
the same direction. “This requires a new
way of thinking and extensive collaboration
across countries and silos. It requires agility,
innovation and entrepreneurship.” »with a number of telecom operators, media firms, car
specialists, and so forth,” he explains. “It’s about going way
beyond insurance.”
Similarly, Baloise has teamed up with professional services
firm Deloitte on a project to completely transform its
finance processes. “Deloitte is contributing both technical
knowledge and change-management expertise,” Carsten says.
“It will allow our teams to have a set-up where we can
achieve the required change. Thanks to this project, a better
business-decision support is fostered. Baloise will be faster,
agiler and more resource-efficient in all business-relevant
aspects.” Now in execution phase, when complete, the
project is anticipated to lead to improvements in business
procedures, communication, accuracy in data modelling and
consistency of information across the entire company.
Modernising the company’s finance processes will be
a major ongoing project, Carsten says. “We are living in a
multi-framework world that is now so complex and diverse,
many processes need stronger and more regular support from
IT. That’s going to be a challenge with regard to managing
stability and transition simultaneously. We have to change
these processes to bring them to a new level. At the same
time, existing processes have to be stable because they are
what we rely on. It’s really a matter of walking between
those two poles.”
Both Gert and Carsten share an enthusiasm for
technology and digital transformation, as well as an
understanding that they are not an end in themselves.
“Digitalisation is about the culture and social movement,”
Gert says. “That is where I get my energy and passion and,
from time to time, also my disappointment – from the
combination of technology with people and culture.”
This intersection has long fascinated Gert; his first role
at Baloise was as a chief information officer. Unusually for
someone in this position, he also had responsibility for the
HR department. “People find that a strange combination,”
he says. “I appear so tech-driven and nerdy on one hand,
but then I have a strong interest in people and culture on
the other. But those have always been my twin passions.”
Carsten also enjoys the amalgam of soft skills and technical
expertise required in the insurance field. “I find the space
that we are in absolutely fascinating,” he says.
“ I find the space that we are in
absolutely fascinating.” – Carsten Stolz
Interview | INNOVATE