Travelers’ CTO Mojgan Lefebvre on “Perform and Transform” in Insurance Innovation
In a recent interview with Insurance Business America, Mojgan Lefebvre, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Travelers Insurance, outlined the company’s disciplined approach to innovation in the insurance sector. Lefebvre emphasized Travelers’ “perform and transform” framework, an enterprise-wide strategy that balances day-to-day operational excellence with forward-looking technological advancements to maintain a competitive edge in a rapidly evolving, cloud- and AI-driven market.
The “Perform and Transform” Imperative
According to Lefebvre, “perform” focuses on executing reliably against the company’s financial strategy to deliver industry-leading results and return on equity, ensuring the core business functions—such as underwriting, claims processing, and operations—run smoothly and efficiently. Meanwhile, “transform” involves innovating to differentiate Travelers, leveraging modern technologies like AI, data analytics, and cloud infrastructure to adapt to market changes and customer needs. This dual focus ensures that innovation is not pursued in isolation but is tightly aligned with business goals, making change practical and sustainable.
Discipline in Core Modernization
Lefebvre highlighted the critical role of core modernization as the foundation for scalable innovation. This includes adopting flexible, loosely coupled architectures that allow for easier upgrades and integration of AI and analytics, even on legacy systems, without requiring complete overhauls. Key elements involve enhancing data accessibility and quality, embedding security and resilience from the ground up, and preparing the organization for AI-driven decision-making at all levels. She stressed that without a modern core, insurers risk inefficiency and missed opportunities in a data-intensive industry.
Strategic Partnerships and “Buy vs. Build”
Travelers employs a “buy for commodity and build for competitive advantage” philosophy in partnerships. Lefebvre explained that the company integrates external solutions for non-differentiating capabilities, such as cloud platforms or customer experience tools, where partners can accelerate delivery. However, for areas like pricing sophistication and risk segmentation—where Travelers holds a durable edge—they prioritize in-house development to control outcomes. Examples include initial collaborations with vendors like Salesforce and Guidewire, which evolve into self-managed operations over time. External partners are used selectively for short-term needs or specialized skills, always with a focus on engineering excellence to ensure long-term independence.
Talent and Organizational Focus
Innovation at Travelers is a “team sport,” as Lefebvre described, involving cross-functional collaboration across data and analytics teams (to turn proprietary data into actionable intelligence), cloud and cybersecurity experts (to build secure platforms), and product, customer experience (CX), and user experience (UX) groups (to drive iterative, product-centric delivery). Amid abundant opportunities, discipline comes from ruthless prioritization—focusing on high-value investments that align with strategic goals. Lefebvre also underscored the need to rethink processes holistically, integrating people, technology, and workflows, especially as AI reshapes insurance operations.
Overall, Lefebvre’s insights portray insurance innovation as a disciplined, balanced endeavor that prioritizes practical execution over hype, ensuring Travelers remains resilient and competitive in a tech-disrupted landscape. For more on Travelers’ strategies, check their sustainability reports or recent tech webinars, which echo similar themes of risk expertise and digital transformation.
