Future

Making sense of the future

We believe that by progressing our long-term priorities, we’re better equipped to meet new issues as they arise.

Aviva identifies challenges and trends in various ways. Sometimes they emerge through outside events; sometimes we identify them within the company, particularly through our risk and compliance processes but also through dialogue with customers, employees, shareholders, investors and community partners.

Today, the most pressing global issues in the financial services sector are consumer confidence and the credit crunch. Both result from the crisis in the banking industry. As an insurance company, our business model is very different from banks but as a member of the financial sector we are working hard to help improve consumer confidence.

Fair treatment of customers is a fundamental principle. This goes hand in hand with maintaining the confidentiality of information entrusted to us, and safeguarding customers and our business against financial crime. We also focus on offering products and services in line with what our customers expect and we are working hard to improve financial understanding among the general public. You can find initiatives throughout this report and in the Customers section.

Climate change is another issue with far-reaching implications. We remain focused on our strategy of controlling our own carbon footprint, influencing others to take action, and demonstrating concern by taking a leading role where we can. You can find initiatives throughout this report and in the Environment section.

What equips us to meet these challenges?

First and foremost, it’s our capacity to unite under the name Aviva, with uniformly high standards and a shared purpose. Our move to a global brand is essential to compete on the world stage and ensure future success – and by being a strong business we are better equipped to contribute to society.

Our employees are fundamental in this as we not only rely on them to provide exceptional service to our customers but also demonstrate our values as a responsible business. So over the past year, we have invested in far-reaching people programmes to embed our values group-wide and make us a truly customer-focused organisation.

Externally, too, we have taken the message to consumers to reinforce the fact that we are transforming. We want our customers to recognise us as a company they can trust, who puts them at the heart of everything we do. All this we sum up in our vision