More puppies, better coffee, self-help books—some unusual New Year’s Resolutions

More puppies, better coffee, following the seven habits of highly effective people and embracing the Japanese productivity philosophy of ‘Kaizen’—these are just some of the more unusual New Year’s resolutions offered by executives who we interviewed for our year-end questionnaire.

The puppies comment could only come from an insurtech exec who answered the question on New Year’s resolutions in the spirit of the festive season. But Erik Abrahamsson, CEO, Digital Fineprint, also noted that he wants to collaborate more in the tech space.

“My brother maintains a healthy spirit of competition with me when it comes to sport, so hopefully keeping in shape should be doable in 2018 too,” Abrahamsson said.

“One personal promise is to reach out and create more partnerships with more startups in our space, since we can do so much more if we work together.

“I’ve also promised the team more puppies, better quality coffee and new pingpong bats for the office to start off 2018!”

Michael Tripp, head of financial services, Mazars, said he wants to be more client-focused in 2018—and plans to read self-help books: one specifically. “To ensure clients get true value and productive feedback; and to continue learning in respect of data science especially using Stephen Covey’s 7 habits,” Tripp answered.

Meanwhile, Stephan Ruoff, chief executive, Tokio Millennium Re, said he believes in and subscribes to the Japanese productivity philosophy of ‘Kaizen’, which focuses on continuously improving every function of a business, from the CEO to all of the employees throughout the organisation.

“In a sense, it combines the collective talents within a company to create a powerful engine for improvement,” he said.

“TMR made significant strides in 2017 in shaping its underwriting and pricing functions, together with the implementation of a new operating platform, to meet the needs of the future reinsurance marketplace.”

This is just a snapshot of what executives told us in our Christmas questionnaire. For the full comments from all 16 executives who took part in our survey, please click here.