The programme has pushed me to start spending more time talking about emotional capital with our board as well as with my colleagues. Getting people to acknowledge and act on it has helped greatly with the execution plan for our new strategies.
For more than a decade, Fleur Hasaart has been working with CZ, a Dutch health insurance company that provides insurance to around 20% of the country’s population. Her expertise lies in the area of data science and health economics, for which she also holds a PhD.
Over her time at CZ, Fleur has had the opportunity to explore the role of data throughout various aspects of the organisation, from contracting to fraud detection to customer service.
While her perspective on the use of data has always been quite broad, it began to get even broader six years ago when the company tasked her to set up an innovation lab to study the impact and opportunity of new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP).
“Previously, I worked mostly with claims data using the more traditional statistical and econometrical methods. But since we started the lab, we have also begun to look at how AI and NLP could help us to create faster and more personalised services for our customers.”
The Strategic Role of Data in Her Organisation
As part of her job at CZ, Fleur also works with colleagues from the different business units to see how data can help them attain their strategic goals, such as controlling healthcare costs or improving services.
“Data is very essential in all of the priorities that we are working on, and my job is to set out a data strategy to make sure we take advantage of all the possibilities that exist. Data helps us to prioritise what we should work on and make sure that we have the competencies, such as people, process and technology in place."
Recently, this importance of data was further emphasised when CZ moved to formalise data as a strategic priority within the organisation. With a clear mandate to bring the organisation forward using data, Fleur needed to come up with an effective plan to take what had been brewing in the innovation lab to serve the actual strategic goals of the company.
This led Fleur to look for an executive education programme that could equip her with the necessary skillsets to make the implementation of new data initiatives as seamless as possible.
“While researching for good strategy execution programmes, I came across INSEAD’s strategy execution programme outline which described many of the problems I was facing. So, I spoke with my HR department and they agreed to send me for this programme.”
Interactive-based Style of Learning
Leading up to the programme, Fleur was already looking forward to spending a period of focused time learning at the reputed institution. Reflecting upon the actual experience, Fleur shared that she was impressed both by the quality and depth of the teaching materials, as well as the calibre of her fellow participants, who were very knowledgeable and participative.
“The other students were really a big highlight, and it was good to spend so much time together talking about our issues and the challenges that we saw.”
Further enhancing the interactions with her programme mates were the simulation games that had them playing out various strategy execution scenarios. Fleur shared one particular example in which due to only limited information being provided, participants very quickly lost their cool and began ‘running around’ and screaming at each other.
“The experience was very intense, but also very helpful for us in understanding why certain situations arise at the workplace…
For me, a big value of the programme was being able to see that I was not alone in feeling overwhelmed with the task of coming up with a viable strategy. I felt reassured that implementing a big change management programme is not an easy thing because of all sorts of hidden political, emotional and cultural barriers.
These discussions helped me to re-evaluate that instead of always just wanting to race forward, sometimes we need to take a couple of steps back to see what the real issues are and how we can address them in a constructive manner.”
Reflecting Global and Real-World Perspectives
Fleur says that one of the key deciding factors for her in choosing INSEAD’s Strategy Execution Programme was the school’s reputation for having a global outlook. Even though she was limited to taking a course that was based within Europe, she knew that INSEAD would provide her with a multicultural experience that could broaden her viewpoint and enrich her perspectives.
“In our programme, we had participants from Brazilian, Chinese, French, Mexican, German and Swiss origins, which provided many opportunities for unexpected learnings. For example, there was a fellow participant from Saudi Arabia, who was genuinely surprised to discover that my company did not rely on the use of financial incentives.
Through our interactions with one another, we learnt that what works for one market may not necessarily work for another. It also challenged us to think about new ways that we could do things better.”
For Fleur, the impact of the Strategy Execution programme has extended far beyond her time at the campus as she continues to use the examples and tools picked up from the programme in her day-to-day work at CZ.
“The programme has pushed me to start spending more time talking about emotional capital with our board as well as with my colleagues. Getting people to acknowledge and act on it has helped greatly with the execution plan for our new strategies.
Recently, we also had an internal session on fair decision-making, and I was able to borrow from a case study that we had used at INSEAD to help my colleagues consider how to move forward on issues where people don’t necessarily share the same views.”
Time Well Spent
Looking back in retrospect, Fleur has no regrets about her time at INSEAD and recommends others considering the programme to “just go for it”.
“It is a gift to yourself to be on the campus. The time spent away from your usual busy life and just being out there learning and connecting with like-minded people is awesome. It’s really valuable.”
What Fleur has to say about INSEAD’s Strategy Execution Programme
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