Welcome to NEXT.

Sounds daunting, doesn’t it? But the good news is these companies often already have everything they need. The trick is to think differently about the true role employees can play in shaping the future of their company, changing it from within.

At Zurich, we launched an intrapreneurial grassroots movement to do just that. To give a voice to our people, encourage intergenerational dialogue, spark connections, and actively contribute to building a better future together – not just for our company, but for the communities in which we operate.

NEXT, an intrapreneurial grassroots movement at Zurich, evolved within its first two years from 12 founding members with a passion for intergenerational dialogue and connection, sharing best practices, social innovation and future-proofing our company, to a community of over 1’600 employees with a global steering group and 9 local hubs across 5 continents.

NEXT is just getting started, but we’re already seeing the beginnings of a cultural evolution at Zurich and beyond:

• Creating a more inclusive conversation: Starting a global internal dialogue, we’ve seen a focus on hearing from newer generations (the “NextGen”) expand across the Group. This has transformed into creating an intergenerational conversation about the issues that matter
• Securing more seats at the table: Through our advocacy, we’ve seen NextGen appointees to key decision bodies at which they didn’t previously have a presence. Bringing in diverse views and perspectives, this changes the conversation in the rooms where things happen
• Driving awareness of issues that matter: We designed and held a Virtual Summit with panel sessions focused on key future-focused topics such as the “Future of Earth”, “Future of Corporate Social Innovation” and “Future of Work.” With over 1000 signups, we sparked wide-ranging future-focused discussion across the company
• Directly supporting social impact: Together with the Z Zurich Foundation, a charitable foundation established by Zurich Insurance Company Ltd and Zurich Life Insurance Company Ltd, we partnered to directly impact the lives of 12 social entrepreneurs, securing grants totaling over CHF 100,000 for their community programs and indirectly impacting the lives of hundreds of people across the globe. Linked to this, we’ve brought awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals to our colleagues, opening up broader perspectives on what’s possible and necessary to protect future generations
• Facilitating local impact: Our movement expanded from a purely global conversation to a very local one, with 9 local “hubs” forming and launching targeted, impactful initiatives in their countries
• Inspiring other companies: We spearheaded several initiatives to collaborate with counterparts outside of Zurich, helping similar movements form in other corporates

Three of the 12 founding members of NEXT have written a white paper to capture our journey and the lessons we learned along the way. We hope that in doing so, we’ll encourage our colleagues to continue the momentum while inspiring others to carry the torch at their own companies. To everyone interested outside of Zurich, we encourage you to take a look and get started.

For it is only if we do this at scale that we truly change the face of business – creating a more inclusive, in touch and sustainable business world for ourselves and future generations.