Pappas was speaking to a packed live audience at Insurtech Insights USA 2024, which took place in New York recently.
MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programmes, with around 90 million customers in over 60 countries. In 2023, MetLife’s domestic market outperformed all other regions, generating the highest revenue. MetLife’s Group Benefits and RIS segments alone produced over $41 billion in revenue—more than three times the revenue of the next largest segment, Asia, which brought in approximately $10.93 billion.
During the 30-minute discussion, which was moderated by author and podcaster, Bryan Falchuk, Pappas spoke about a range of challenges facing the industry. He focussed heavily on creating a culture of innovation, talent retention, team management – and the massive transition the insurance industry has undergone since COVID.
“What’s particularly different now is that many of these challenges require us to create new playbooks from scratch. There was no existing playbook for a pandemic—we had to invent it. The same goes for navigating AI and even modern cybersecurity threats. As a leader, it’s essential to manage this convergence of change while also developing new strategies. You need to be focused and strategic in how you prioritise these changes. This is what adds so much anxiety and makes it incredibly challenging for leaders to strike the right balance.”
Creating innovation across operations
Pappas spoke about the achievements he was most proud of at MetLife, which included the integration of technology expertise across all teams – and said the merging of innovative talent throughout the organisation meant that MetLife had a head start on implementing and testing new technologies – and discovering use cases, because innovators are not isolated in a silo.
“We recognised the importance of aligning our technology with MetLife’s overall strategy. Our approach to technology is not about adopting new tools for their own sake; it’s about using technology to support and enhance our business strategy.
“When I first joined, we made it clear that technology and operations exist to enable the business to differentiate itself in the marketplace. We focused on ensuring that every technological and operational effort aligns with MetLife’s strategic goals. This means that technology serves as a force multiplier rather than having a separate agenda.”
Pappas noted taking a proactive approach to measure alignment, setting specific metrics and goals that everyone across the value chain could follow, was critical – and described how MetLife’s strategy established routines for transparency and open dialogue, which are crucial for tracking progress and making necessary adjustments.”
“One of the best compliments I got a couple of years ago, was when you walk into the room [and] people cannot tell who is a technologist, versus a product manager versus operations, versus anything else. This integration is vital, especially when working with broader external capabilities, to ensure that we are all aligned with the same strategic objectives. Achieving success in isolation is easy, but it requires a deliberate and collaborative effort to deliver on the company’s strategy.”
Encouraging a culture of retention and development
Regarding building a company culture that both attracts new talent and retains and develops current employees, he said MetLife has invested heavily in its workforce to ensure its employees grow with the marketplace changes and remain open to new developments.
“We see our associates as our most valuable assets. Nothing can be accomplished without the right people, with the right skills and leadership. That’s why we focus heavily on ensuring we have what I call a contemporary workforce. Given how rapidly things are evolving, it’s crucial to attract talent with modern skills and leadership qualities. So, how do we create a culture that makes someone choose MetLife over another company? We invest significantly in building an environment where people want to work with us.”
For the existing workforce, the focus is on keeping employees up to date with the skills they need. This involves understanding how these skills are evolving and scaling our training efforts accordingly. “We’ve talked about democratising training, making it accessible for everyone to learn the skills they need. Additionally, we emphasise the importance of adaptability—our employees must be able to learn and relearn continuously. This shift is crucial, especially compared to the past when a single skill could last a lifetime.”
“But at the core of all this is the customer. If we ever lose focus on that, we risk losing alignment. That’s why we remain deeply committed to keeping the customer at the centre of everything we do.”
Bill Pappas
Making sure teams are always pointing in the right direction and achieving is another priority – especially in a constantly evolving environment, Pappas said. “We prioritise leadership development. What does it take to lead effectively today? My team manages 60,000 resources, and leading them requires inspiring, training, and ensuring they remain contemporary in their roles. This approach is different from what was needed even a year ago. We dedicate a lot of time to this, both internally and with our strategic partners, to ensure our workforce remains competitive in the marketplace.”
Maintaining a customer-first perspective at all times
Referencing COVID and the digital transformation movement, Falchuk then asked about managing a strategy for change that guarantees a productive outcome. Pappas replied that keeping the customer at the forefront of all process changes and developments was key in delivering productive outcomes, as he spoke about the motivations for change within the company.
A successful operation always leads with the customer, Pappas told Falchuk, and then detailed the company’s strategy on researching, experimenting with, and implementing change. “Everything we do starts with the customer,” he said. “At MetLife, our strategy consistently places the customer at the heart of all our decisions, especially in times of volatility and uncertainty. We always return to our guiding principle: the customer is our North Star.”
He continued: “We assess whether we have the right products and processes to meet these customer needs. This often involves re-engineering our processes to ensure we’re delivering on those requirements effectively. On the technology side, we constantly explore new possibilities to improve our solutions and streamline our processes, allowing us to deliver better products.”
Pappas added: “But at the core of all this is the customer. If we ever lose focus on that, we risk losing alignment. That’s why we remain deeply committed to keeping the customer at the centre of everything we do.”
Reporting by Joanna England
