Adrian Gore, founder and Chief Executive of Discovery Group, the parent company of VitalityHealth and VitalityLife, believes strong leadership is about more than managing performance or delivering commercial success.
In Adrian’s view, leaders have a responsibility to create businesses that generate long-term value for customers, employees and society, while remaining focused on sustainable growth and measurable outcomes. As insurers continue to evolve their role beyond simply paying claims, many are looking at how they can support healthier behaviours, improve financial resilience and engage with clients long before a claim is ever made.
Sharing his thoughts on what strong leadership looks like in today’s insurance and protection market, Adrian explains how a focus on meaningful outcomes has shaped both his leadership philosophy and the growth of Vitality’s shared value model.
“Vitality was built on a simple but powerful belief: that insurance is about more than paying claims. It is uniquely positioned to help people live longer, healthier, more financially secure lives. And that belief has driven extraordinary results.
Our Shared Value model, where members get healthier, claims fall, actuarial dynamics improve, and society benefits, enables greater reinvestment into prevention and personalised guidance. It’s a self-reinforcing cycle and it is this approach that is reflected across our business today.
Delivering this model at scale takes a particular kind of leadership though, one that isn’t passive or cynical. I have always believed in the power of optimism, particularly disciplined optimism – the ability to see opportunity where others see constraint, while remaining deeply grounded in evidence and action. Leaders also need to act with focused urgency, because the world is changing fast and member needs are evolving faster than most institutions can follow.
At Vitality, clear goals are what makes targets visible and teams accountable. And a sharp focus on the decisions that matter most and the ones that genuinely shape member outcomes and long-term performance. This is what we find turns effort into real impact.
In this way, leadership becomes multiplicative: optimism creates possibility, urgency drives momentum, goals create accountability, and leverage turns effort into outcomes.
These principles have shaped our global journey and led to a scalable, evidence-based model that delivers better long-term outcomes for all stakeholders. It’s also what keeps Vitality growing and makes insurance a force for good.”
Adrian Gore is the founder and Chief Executive of Discovery Group, the parent company of VitalityHealth and VitalityLife, and the author of The Four Principles – Multiply your Impact in Life and Leadership: The Four Principles: Multiply Your Impact in Life and Leadership eBook : Gore, Adrian: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store)
