Benmosche has set up an IT governance board to keep all technology initiatives on track and meets monthly with the heads of each business unit for four hours to discuss top IT priorities. Benmosche has focused the strategy of the company around internal partnerships. That forces partnership among the business units. Benmosche also learned from his tenure in IT that a company, regardless of how many products it offers, has to focus on the customer. The challenge is to think about the customer because the customer may have more than one product with the company.
Partnership is the key word.
We want people in MetLife to think about partnering with other people in the company to serve the customer. To date, Benmosche says, MetLife is about halfway through the integration of all customer information. You have to give the holistic service to the customer. That can only be done with technology. But the most important ability for any tech-savvy CEO, Benmosche says, is to listen to the needs of the customer.