Pros
I love my city and I love the vibrant IT community here in central Ohio! That said, Grange Insurance is hands-down the most exciting place I’ve ever worked and I am proud to call this company Home. I’m proud to count my Grange colleagues as friends and family.
What makes Grange Insurance so exciting to work at? Three words: Transformation. Modernization. Culture.
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I’m the kind of person that loves change. I love a challenge. I love growth and progression and finding new, innovative ways to solve problems and provide business value. If you were not aware, the insurance industry itself is at a tipping point, and as a result is garnering significant energy in technology circles, including Silicon Valley. Don’t believe me? Google “Insurtech” and tell me the results don’t ASTOUND you. Just 2 years ago you’d be hard pressed to even find a definition for the word and now “Insurtech” is practically a household name in Silicon Valley. New and exciting technologies are garnering the attraction of hundreds of new startups and millions upon millions of dollars in investment. It’s an easily discoverable fact that the Insurance industry is the place to be from a technology perspective, and wow do I feel lucky to be a part of it. It doesn’t get more exciting than this!
That said, the challenge for Grange is CHANGE, and it’s a cultural challenge. Of course, it’s also a technology challenge, and a process challenge, a discipline challenge; but at its heart, it’s really a “people” challenge. The hard truth is that some people embrace change and some people don’t, and I certainly don’t blame those that resist…Change is hard and when you’ve devoted decades of your life to a particular methodology and a way of going about your “day to day”, just to have new leadership come in and start driving a new direction, it can be scary and it can be hard to see the “why”. We’ve seen some talented people leave, which is disappointing, but we’ve also seen greatness!
In one short year Grange has received multiple industry awards for the work we’ve done with our Innovation practice and our Digital strategy. We have been featured in multiple articles and industry events. Why? Because very few companies are approaching change like we are. Very few companies are delivering the kinds of forward-leaning, customer-focused solutions that we are. Despite not having the kind of deep pockets as some of our competitors, we’ve relied on a crystal clear vision for the future, but also our secret weapon: our Associates.
That said, we are just getting started! We have a dynamic, seasoned CIO who is focused on driving cultural change through innovation and a focus on delivery and measurable results. We have a CTO that is charged with the immensely difficult job of adopting industry standard processes and tooling and establishing and driving the foundation of our enterprise Transformation & Modernization strategy. We have immense support from our Senior Leadership Team and Board of Directors, too! Sound like a great place to be? I sure think so!
Cons
We have A LOT of work to do, and not all of that work is "cutting edge"...quite a bit of it really amounts to table stakes and requires focus on process, tooling, re-platforming and just plain old-fashioned hard work. Regardless, the need for talented leaders - folks who understand how to empathize and influence and help others feel safe and intrinsically included, is what is required. Luckily, we have this at Grange, but admittedly we could use more!
