Innovation UnderCover had the pleasure of speaking with  Kyle Babirad, President & Actuary at Canary Consulting. Canary is a lean insurance product development firm focused on bringing new, profitable Property & Casualty insurance products to market.

The war for talent is a reality not just for insurance, but several industries, especially in the post-pandemic world. A 2022 report authored by Price Waterhouse Coopers recommends that one of the ways for the industry to win this is to play offense and not defense when it comes to attracting and retaining the right talent.

Kyle Babirad is a trendsetter in that, for him, hiring the right team was what was important than defining a key offering, leading him to launch Canary Consulting. He has been using Inclusion & Diversity strategies way before they were publicized both to build out his team and help grow his client teams. Renu & Michael had a great chat with Kyle about his foray into the insurance industry as an actuary, to his new role now helping insurtechs roll out programs as he understands both the traditional insurance world and the culture of startups.

Some of the topics we discussed:

• Solving for low-hanging fruit in insurance as there is so much basic stuff that has not been tackled yet
• Defining the hiring criteria as not being unique but general – drive, humility, and general smarts
• How the bottleneck for getting new products off the ground is programming
• How innovation has to focus on improving underwriting results
• How customer experience and profitability can be improved

Other titles we considered:

1. Being in the Midwest Is a Thing Too!
2. The Wide Diversity of a Bunch of Normal People
3. It Is NoOne’s Job to Know All Parts of an Insurance Company
4. It Feels Like You are Pushing Bumps Down Under a Tablecloth
5. People Care More About Stuff Than Their Bodies

This episode was produced by Khrystyna Khmilovska.