"Cologne is very young and offers a lively culture"

Zurich is one of Europe’s largest insurance firms. The company was recently also named as Germany’s best employer. Its CEO, Dr Carsten Schildknecht, spoke with our CEO Dr Manfred Janssen about the transformation of his company and the challenges lying ahead. 

Dr Schildknecht, the Zurich Group has large locations in Frankfurt and Cologne. How did the decision come about to locate the headquarters here in Cologne? 

Next to Munich, Cologne is the largest location for insurance companies in Germany. We feel at home here and have excellent access to new talents - with 100,000 students at the many local universities and colleges. The ransport links are also unbeatable, especially at our location here in KölnDeutz. It's just under an hour's travel time to the location in Frankfurt, which makes exchange and teamwork very easy. 

Sustainability plays a big role for you. Why is that so important for an insurance company like Zurich? 

There is no way around a sustainable way of working and living if we want to hand the planet over to the next generation. That is why we want to be one of the most sustainable companies in the world and have set ourselves very ambitious goals. We were therefore one of the first insurers to join the United Nations' "Business Ambition for 1.5 Degrees" project and are a pioneer in the German economy in many dimensions of our sustainability strategy. 

Did sustainability also play a role in the construction in Cologne-Deutz? 

The three new buildings are at the highest level in terms of sustainable management. This applies to all aspects, energy efficiency, the use of renewable energies or the handling of water resources. However, we have thought sustainability further and beyond the purely environmental aspect, and with the construction and the move three years ago, we made a big change in our corporate culture. 

How does that manifest itself specifically here in Cologne? 

With its open spaces and transparency, with the opportunities for communication and interaction that we find there, this building is a symbol for a new Zurich. There is no boardroom, all board members sit with their teams and no longer have their own office. Reinforced by the experience of the pandemic, we have changed the way we work more in the past four years than in the two decades before. 

Have these changes already proved successful? 

The flatter hierarchies and greater transparency have not only improved our day-to-day work - after all, Zurich was named Germany's number one employer across all industries as well as in the insurance industry at the beginning of 2022 - but they have also made us more crisis-proof. One example of this is that we acted much faster during the flood of the century in the Ahrtal and skipped paths that were common in the past. 

The insurance industry is in a state of upheaval. How do you assess the development of Zurich and the Cologne location in particular? 

The insurance industry is challenged by digitalisation, new competitors in the form of InsurTech start-ups and regulatory changes. But together with our approximately 4,400 employees in Germany, around 2,800 of them in Cologne, we have created many opportunities for growth. 

You yourself have worked as an advisor and investor in the startup scene: What role do startups play for the Zurich Group? 

Young companies are interesting for us in many ways. If they have an attractive business model, we can acquire them, as we have done in the area of supplementary dental insurance and veterinary health insurance. But we can also become a customer or partner if they map individual aspects of the value chain particularly efficiently or innovatively. 

Lastly, a personal assessment: How do you look at Cologne, what comes to mind when you think about the city? 

The city is very young, offers a vibrant culture and welcomes newcomers with open arms. I felt that myself. Everything seems a bit more relaxed than elsewhere. People like to party in Cologne, and that fits in well with our motto: work hard, party hard. When I praised the good infrastructure at the beginning, I don't just mean the proximity to the train station, but also to the Tanzbrunnen on the Rhine (laughs). That's the best place to celebrate successes together.