Achmea has successfully scaled while maintaining its cooperative ethos, which underpins its strategic transformation. Founded in 1811 on shared responsibility principles, the company has evolved into a major insurer, balancing growth with purpose-driven action. Its strategy, “Sustainable living. Together,” emphasises sustainability, inclusiveness, and customer-centricity. By reinvesting profits into customer benefits and societal initiatives, Achmea tackles major challenges in healthcare, housing, and mobility. Digital transformation enhances efficiency and customer experience, while sustainability goals ensure long-term value. This approach translates Achmea’s cooperative identity into a powerful enabler of positive social impact and sustainable growth.
Achmea, founded in 1811, was established through a collaboration between 38 farmers in the small Dutch village of Achlum, united by a shared concern for fire safety of haystacks. Initially, the company focused on providing risk management assistance to these farmers, on the cooperative principle of shared responsibility.
Achmea has since evolved into a leading provider of insurance and financial services, offering a broad range of health, non-life, and pension products to over 13 million customers, predominantly in the Netherlands, but with operations spanning six countries. Achmea has embraced digital innovation in personal insurance lines, extending its reach to key markets such as Germany, Turkey, and Greece. Despite challenges posed by recent natural disasters in Turkey and Greece, the company continues to strategically expand its European footprint.
The company's journey from a small, local cooperative insurer to a large, multinational company highlights some of the challenges that need to be overcome to maintain a cooperative identity while growing and scaling as an organisation.
When many cooperative and mutual insurers were originally founded in the 1800s in the Netherlands (and, indeed, globally), they were established around the notion of “implicit” social contracts among its members - usually belonging to the same affinity group and/or sharing similar risks (eg farmers sharing farming-related risks) – based on common values, morality and driven by a strong sense of personal responsibility.
However, as they scale, and as insurance in general has become more complex, there is a necessity to shift towards more “explicit” financial contracts which are heavily regulated and administrated, meaning that with their success and growth, customers of larger mutuals may find it more difficult to still experience the original cooperative/mutual ethos.
Sustainable living. Together
Under new leadership in 2021, the company set out an ambition to create sustainable value for its customers, employees, company and society at large, through a revised vision: “Sustainable living. Together”. This simplified its strategy to focus on environmental sustainability, inclusiveness, and customer-centricity.
The new CEO streamlined operations, reducing strategic complexity to ensure clarity and purpose across the organisation. Achmea redefined its core brands and areas of focus around: healthcare, mobility, housing, and income security; aiming to solve major societal issues through its operations across these four domains.
In order to promote its purpose to customers and other stakeholders, Achmea commissioned a company film: “Sustainable living, together. The Achmea way”. The corporate film aimed to illustrate how Achmea strives to work together to ensure that people’s lives can go on, even when facing major life events: coming up with solutions to ever new challenges together, and seeing opportunities where others no longer see them.
A significant aspect of the company's strategy involves addressing social problems and leveraging its large customer base to influence positive change. For instance, the company launched campaigns against fireworks during New Year's Eve, advocating for safer celebrations to reduce injuries and property damage. Another initiative focuses on traffic safety, particularly addressing the dangers of using mobile phones while cycling, which is prevalent in the Netherlands.
The company has also set ambitious sustainability goals, such as achieving climate-neutral operations by 2030 and climate-neutral investments by 2040. These targets are integral to its broader mission of creating sustainable value for multiple stakeholders. Efforts include making buildings climate-neutral, investing in sustainable projects, and offering employees a one-off climate budget of EUR 2,500 towards energy-saving solutions such as green roofs and solar panels.
Published September 2024
Cooperative identity as an enabler of strategic transformation
Despite transitioning to more of a corporate-like structure as Achmea has scaled as an organisation, the company strives to retain its cooperative roots by focusing on customer-centric policies and community engagement. Its cooperative identity and ethos remains a critical enabler for Achmea, allowing the company to prioritise long-term value creation over short-term profits. This involves reinvesting profits into customer benefits and community initiatives rather than distributing them to external shareholders.
The company is also focusing on digital transformation to improve efficiency and customer experience. This includes simplifying processes and leveraging data analytics to offer personalised services. The aim is to reduce manual work and enable employees to spend more time on value-adding activities, enhancing customer interactions.
Engaging the Board and other stakeholders has been crucial in this transformation. Achmea ensures that strategic decisions align with its cooperative ethos and long-term goals. This involves continuous dialogue and learning among Board members, reflecting diverse industry backgrounds and expertise. The focus is on maintaining a balance between fiduciary responsibilities and the company's mission-driven objectives.
Adapting to regulatory changes and technological advancements remains a challenge. Achmea continues to explore ways to use technology and data to include high-risk individuals and make insurance more inclusive. It also seeks to support the energy transition by taking calculated risks on new technologies.
Translating purpose into action
Measuring progress in solving social issues is complex, but Achmea sets clear KPIs and tracks outcomes across its main domains.
For example, in tackling elderly housing shortages, the company aims to facilitate the creation of 10,000 new homes. In 2022, it took over 32 residential-care complexes and has developed new housing concepts. It also launched a national campaign to seek collaboration with governments and organisations involved in healthcare and housing.
In healthcare, it has invested an additional EUR 40 million to improve accessibility and efficiency through digital consultations. Working with hospitals and GPs on the digitalisation of care, and through the Achmea Innovation Fund, it has invested in start-ups and scale-ups rolling out innovative concepts in the field of healthcare.
Achmea is also closely involved in the political debate on the development of the new pension system, which will be a key issue in the coming years. It wants to make the Future of Pensions Act workable for its clients.
These initiatives are driven by the belief that cooperative/mutual insurers can play a significant role in addressing societal challenges and fostering community cohesion.
The overarching goal is to balance financial performance with social responsibility, ensuring sustainable growth while staying true to the cooperative principles that have guided the company since its inception.
About Achmea
Founded more than 210 years ago, Achmea has grown from a small mutual insurer to the largest insurance company in the Dutch market. It ranks among Europe’s 20 largest insurers based on written premiums and is one of the 10 largest non-life insurers in the region (and the largest European non-life mutual insurer). Its core business lines are non-life, health, income protection, pension services and asset management. Achmea operates a multi-channel distribution strategy that services a diversified client base, including consumers, small businesses, listed companies and government organisations.
