Humanizing a Legacy Brand: From LEGOs to Insurance with Conny Kalcher
May 22, 2025
What if you could transform your organization's customer experience while keeping empathy and the human element at its core?
In this episode of Humanity at Scale, host Bruce Temkin is joined by Conny Kalcher, Group Chief Customer Officer at Zurich Insurance Company, to discuss reimagining customer experience in large organizations. They explore moving beyond transactions to build meaningful, empathetic customer relationships. Conny shares how Zurich leverages AI to support, not replace, human connections, embeds empathy into its culture, and uses co-creation to drive transformation. From empowering teams to fostering prevention-focused services, the discussion reveals how customer-centric leadership fuels innovation and long-term trust. A must-listen for anyone navigating digital transformation while keeping humanity at the heart of business.
What if you could transform your organization's customer experience while keeping empathy and the human element at its core?
In this episode of Humanity at Scale, host Bruce Temkin is joined by Conny Kalcher, Group Chief Customer Officer at Zurich Insurance Company, to discuss reimagining customer experience in large organizations. They explore moving beyond transactions to build meaningful, empathetic customer relationships. Conny shares how Zurich leverages AI to support, not replace, human connections, embeds empathy into its culture, and uses co-creation to drive transformation. From empowering teams to fostering prevention-focused services, the discussion reveals how customer-centric leadership fuels innovation and long-term trust. A must-listen for anyone navigating digital transformation while keeping humanity at the heart of business.
What you will learn:
- About transitioning from transactional interactions to meaningful customer relationships in large organizations
- The business case for making customer experience a core strategy
- Why co-creation beats dictation when implementing organizational change
- How to use AI to strengthen human connections while maintaining ethical standards
- The framework for embedding empathy into corporate culture
- How to balance global consistency with local execution in regulated industries
- The principles for using customer insights to drive innovation
- How to combine AI and a human element in corporate communications
- Why flatter, and flexible organizations enable better customer-centric transformation
Conny Kalcher is the Group Chief Customer Officer at Zurich Insurance Company, where she leads global customer experience transformation and cultural change. With over 30 years of experience in brand marketing and CX, including a pivotal role in LEGO’s turnaround, she is known for embedding empathy into corporate culture at scale. A founding partner of the NPS and Loyalty Forum, Conny drives innovation that fuels sustainable growth. She brings together high-performing teams to create meaningful, customer-focused change. Outside of her role at Zurich, she serves on the Board of Trustees at the Z Zurich Foundation, championing sustainability and social impact worldwide.
Episode Resources: