Growth, Resilience & Everyday Excellence in Insurance

Regulators introduced the concept of ‘resilience’ back in December 2019, issuing joint Consultation Papers on Operational Resilience (FCA, PRA and The Bank of England).  However, 15 months on ‘resilience’ remains a theme of discussion for the industry and regulatory bodies, and in response to the wide-spread need for clarification, GreenKite assembled a panel of guest experts willing to share their insights, experiences, and views to reduce this ambiguity.   

Meet the Panel 

• Sara Ager – CEO at GreenKite
• Richard Marshall – Portfolio Manager at HDI Global Speciality SE 
• Monique Alder – COO at Volante Group
• Maxine Goddard – Board advisor for GreenKite 

During this pragmatic and interactive 45-minute discussion, the panel took a deep-dive into: 

• Are the 2020s materially different in working out what matters for Resilience, the change it means for firms, or alters how you go about achieving it? 
• What does a rigorous Business Resilience Strategy look like for today’s Insurance firms in a post-pandemic world? What should be in it, and how do you ensure that it evolves with the needs of the business and relevant regulatory requirements?  
• GreenKite also take this opportunity to share some of the important ideas they believe are important to ambitious, growth-orientated firms. 

‘What keeps you passionate and engaged with Insurance, and how does what you do in your current role support your personal Purpose?’  

Despite the insurance industry being over 330 years old, Maxine acknowledges her fascination with how the market is constantly evolving, and through the lens of Operational Transformation, she sees this landscape of changing risks (both existing and emerging risk) as ‘the green-shoots for resilience’.  This has played a key role in keeping her engaged and energised in this industry over her past 22 years.  Recognising that the industry is ‘not the fastest’ or ‘the most flexible’, ‘there is an alertness that comes from what we do’ and a desire ‘to respond to social purpose’.  

Monique acknowledges that ‘insurance may not appear interesting from the outside’, but ‘insurance makes the world turn’ and ‘it’s important’.  Since joining Volante back in August, Monique shares how the company has aligned with its capacity providers and within her remit as COO, this allows her to focus on reducing costs in an ethical way as well as focusing on staff wellbeing.   

Richard emphasises the importance of ‘people’ and the working environment ‘created by the people’, as being a more instrumental driver for him, than ‘the issues and challenges at work’. He considers himself to be fortunate in this respect having worked with people who are ‘professional, skilled and from diverse backgrounds’.   

Reiterating the sentiment of other panel members, Sara agrees that ‘the people are fantastic’, the ‘opportunities are limitless’ and she is grateful to have had the opportunity to set-up ‘a business adding true value to the insurance sector’.  Sara echoed that the nature and pace of changes now faced by companies is ‘different and at a faster speed’, and ‘we have to be adaptable as an industry and a profession’.  GreenKite offers support to firms ‘who want to develop and are ambitious to face the future and innovate.’   

You could say that the ultimate proof of Resilience is for YOUR firm to be growing when others are not.          

Monique explains that Volante has a lot of small operations globally, and it has continued to bring in new staff and build new teams throughout the pandemic.  Volante has focused on aligning with its capacity providers and adopting a model whereby Volante only make money when this is possible for the capacity provider.  This has been achieved through keeping commission equal to cost, centralising resources, and outsourcing where possible.  Most of Volante’s teams use a single system from cradle to grave, allowing underwriters to focus their time on that primary task removing the need to use multiple legacy systems. 

Richard compares ‘resilience’ to ‘overcoming adversity’ which in many ways he views as ‘doing the basics right’, which requires having ‘good people’, ‘good systems and processes’ and above all ‘access to information from which to make good decisions’. 

Maxine shared her experience of Zurich and emphasises the importance of ‘coherence’ which meant that the business ‘were able to make decisions faster’, ‘able to prioritise resources faster’ and ‘risk profiling and risk actions took on a new energy’.  She noted that ‘employee engagement’ ramped up, and there was a distinct heightening of the importance to make sure people felt recognised through the company’s continued commitment to diversity, wellbeing, ESG and sustainability initiatives.  

Sara highlights that historically many companies have considered themselves to be ‘operationally resilient’ if they were able to produce a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) to say what they would do if something went wrong.  The pandemic has however demonstrated that BCP is just one of the facets of being an ‘operationally resilient company’.  

A key area of resilience focuses on core processes and data management: everything from underwriting and governance to really deconstructing what a ‘rate’ actually means.  What does this mean for your own People, Processes and Technology — but also for the other parties that share the value chain with you? 

Richard emphasises ‘not to underestimate how important data is’ to any business and within his role at HDI ‘it’s at the heart of everything they do’.  A new business opportunity with a delegated authority is dependent on data being available.  The data tells the business about the portfolio, the mix, the profile, the growth ratings, the price adequacies, and risk factors etc.  In terms of on-going business, it’s the regular insights that enable and allow businesses to track and monitor what is happening.  Richard reflects on how the integrity of data has improved significantly over the last 12 – 14 years, in its accessibility, consistency, codification, and regularity, and whilst it ‘still has a long way to go’ these enhancements continue to support the business in its pricing analysis. 

Maxine shares her thoughts on the market becoming even more competitive, recognising that ‘digital upstarts (.e.g. Lemonade) will not be going away as they’ve actually been emboldened’.  ‘We have zero time to lose’ and ‘zero time to go back to the old normal’, as far as Maxine is concerned. ‘Data, customer connectedness, customer convenience, and the need for simplicity must be delivered’.  Maxine is optimistic in the markets ability to change, and how the pandemic has proven businesses ‘can’ adapt when they ‘want to’.  Maxine also shares her recognition that ‘customers need businesses to be more flexible, purposeful, interconnected and human’.   

Sara emphasises how crucial it is for business to understand that ‘the value of internal data should not be underplayed’, simply using it for the purposes of sharing updates with Board members is not enough.  If internal data is used effectively it will not only inform the identification and management of risks to the business in general but will inform and empower the relevant personnel to take proactive steps to mitigation of such risks. 

Monique spoke of Volante’s use of a portal accessible to both underwriters and carriers, allowing underlying documentation to be jointly shared, a practice which needs to be more commonly adopted across the market.  Upon joining Volante, Monique felt it was important to consider ‘resilience’ both internally and externally, and in recognition of this, established benchmarking and performance information around her own Operational teams’ practices, to aid the identification for future improvements.      

Businesses face the practicalities of taking finite resource and balancing them between building Resilience for the now and focussing on future issues that really aren’t that far away. Why, and what are the future factors that should be considered? 

Maxine recognises that a lot of money has been invested in legacy systems and solutions, and the build of deliberate and successful business models around them but says, ‘this decade needs to be flatter and more nimble’, referring to ‘standardisation’ as an ‘old practice’.  Going forward, ‘operationally it’s about connectivity, digital acceleration but also the social activism pieces such as ESG, sustainability, shifts in demographic, how as an industry we can attract talent, upskilling and reskilling, and making businesses more attractive’.   

Sara highlights the Regulators introduction of the concept of ‘resilience’ back in December 2019, and how the Senior Managers Regime is littered with references about getting the ‘right culture’, incentivising the right behaviour, offering training to the right people, offering the right products to customers, and Sustainability Charters.  

Monique reflects on the industry and how as ‘risk managers’, the ‘market training’ has historically focused on ‘identifying flaws’, ‘which we need to stop doing when looking at advancement in our own marketplaces’.  

Richard acknowledges the challenge of managing finite resources and the propensity to focus on the ‘past’ or the ‘now’ rather than the ‘future’.  As a consequence, the focus can remain upon legacy systems/data/technologies and run-off portfolios, at the risk of becoming blinkered to planning for the next 12 – 24 months, which takes discipline and on-going commitment.  

At GreenKite we routinely talk about ‘Everyday Excellence’ and Resilience, especially growing resiliently.       

Bringing ‘resilience’ as an agenda item to the Board is key, and this is reflected in GreenKite’s development programmes which facilitate leaders in their communication, and focuses them on how to be agile in their responses.  

Having a ‘purpose as an organisation’, and ‘empowering people company-wide (not solely senior management)’, allowing them to make and revisit decisions without the perception that reengineering programmes of work or a change of strategic direction is a sign of ‘failure’.  It is critical to help businesses develop the governance structures that allow this freedom of thought. 

‘If you do ONE thing as a result of this session, DO THIS …’ 

Monique, ‘take time to reflect about what the future looks like’ and ‘make sure you’re building a solid foundation to get there’. 

Maxine, ‘your organisational culture is your biggest threat, or asset, it’s your choice!’ and ‘what is the secret sauce that is going to make my organisation move forward in a strong and cohesive way’. 

Richard, ‘keep challenging your existing systems and processes’ like a ‘chief revolutionary officer’, ‘change is the constant’.  

Sara, ‘communicate the company purpose and get buy-in from your people’.