When you’ve led some of Australia’s largest insurers, sat on boards, and now advise executives on strategy and innovation, you earn the right to speak candidly about what works and what doesn’t. In this Innovation Insider episode, I sat down with Anthony Justice (AJ)—former CEO of Uno Home Loans, ex-IAG executive, and now co-founder of strategy firm 11Eight—to talk about what it really takes to drive innovation inside large, complex organisations.

And spoiler alert: it’s not a shiny lab or a new title. It’s culture.

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Innovation isn’t a department

AJ believes innovation is “everybody’s responsibility,” not something to be quarantined in a separate team. When organisations create a standalone innovation unit, they risk letting everyone else off the hook.

“Innovation isn’t a big program or investment. It’s about how every person in the organisation thinks about doing things better and differently.”

For AJ, the goal is to embed curiosity and experimentation into everyday work. That means leaders must create space, safety, and permission for people to try new things—and occasionally fail.

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Culture is the real competitive advantage

We talked about what that looks like in practice. AJ says you know you’ve got the right culture when your people feel like “you’ve got their back.” It’s about listening to ideas from all corners of the organisation, carving out small pools of funding to test those ideas, and celebrating the wins—no matter how small.

The biggest barrier he sees today? Leaders who can’t stop things.

“Most organisations are dreadful at stopping things that don’t align to strategy. The corporate machine just keeps rolling.”

That inability to pause misaligned work kills innovation before it starts. It leaves teams too stretched, too cautious, and too focused on business-as-usual to think creatively.

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The politics of progress

AJ didn’t shy away from the harder truths either. Politics, he says, are “a fact of life in the corporate world.” Fear of losing relevance or missing out on bonuses often drives behaviour, stifling bold ideas.

As he put it, the best leaders are those who push through the politics, take bold steps, and create environments where people feel safe to experiment.

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Innovation vs. the 90-day cycle

Perhaps AJ’s most “unpopular opinion” is that listed companies are too obsessed with short-term results.

“The requirement to hit your next quarterly numbers is overwhelming.”

It’s a view that resonates across industries. In insurance, as in health or government, the return on prevention or innovation often stretches well beyond a financial year—or even a generation. Yet, those investments are essential for long-term survival.

AJ contrasted this with privately held or mutual organisations that can think in decades, not quarters. They have what he calls patient capital, which allows for more courageous, future-focused decision-making.

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The changing shape of insurance

Our conversation also touched on the macro forces reshaping insurance. Climate change, affordability, and regulation are tightening their grip on the industry. Scale is becoming critical for survival, especially as smaller players face rising capital and compliance costs.

But AJ sees opportunity in the crisis:

“Affordability is one of the biggest challenges facing the industry—and I don’t see much innovation happening there.”

He speculates that real disruption might come from outside the industry—perhaps big tech or a player we haven’t even heard of yet, much like Tesla’s impact on automotive.

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The power of simple ideas

Despite a career spent in boardrooms, AJ’s favourite innovations aren’t high-tech. They’re simple. He shared an example of a company that created a filtering sock for storm drains to catch rubbish before it reaches the ocean.

“It’s such a simple idea—low cost, highly replicable, and with a massive environmental impact.”

It’s a reminder that innovation doesn’t always start in a lab. Often, it’s just about seeing an everyday problem differently and giving people the freedom to fix it.

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Life beyond the boardroom

Today, AJ splits his time between 11Eight, helping organisations sharpen their strategy and innovation capability, and VinJustice, a wine consultancy born from his lifelong passion for the grape. He jokes that these days he spends as much time serving wine as he does serving up strategy advice—and he’s never been happier.

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Listen now

This episode is a masterclass in practical innovation leadership: how to create space for experimentation, navigate politics, and think beyond the next quarter.

🎧 Listen to the full conversation on Innovation Insider wherever you get your podcasts.

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