Chris Grieve, Executive Head - Sales and Market Underwriting at Zurich South Africa, talks transformation, ambition and strategy.

By Ian Armitage

Zurich Insurance Company South Africa Limited (formerly SA Eagle) has been on a journey - a journey of transformation. It has done so, says Chris Grieve, Executive Head - Sales and Market Underwriting, to “achieve future profitable growth aspirations and to provide the market with world class service”.

Zurich has taken decisive action across all areas of its business to enhance the focus around brokers and customers and to improve operational capabilities, so as to strengthen “market position and build a solid operating platform for the future,” he explains.

Grieve was appointed to the position of Head of Market Underwriting in November 2010 and subsequently took over Sales, becoming Executive Head of Sales and Market Underwriting in February this year. He has spent 30 years in the industry and gained invaluable experience from his previous roles with Mutual & Federal and, more recently, Willis Re where he held the positions of Executive General Manager and Managing Director respectively. He plans to bring industry experience in strategic leadership across underwriting, broker relationships and business development which, given what Zurich is planning to achieve, is vital.

“Zurich’s vision is clear – to be the leading empowered insurer in its chosen markets,” he says. “We will grow and develop the organisation bringing the Zurich global capability to Africa, and to do this, it was essential that we take the necessary actions to create a solid foundation for the future; we’ve been doing that over the last 18 months and we are now starting to see the results.

“The changes we have made are all about making the right choices, thinking about how to enhance the focus around brokers and customers. We plan to be the leader in our chosen markets and to get us there we had to put in place solid building blocks to ensure that we achieve the targets we have set - that meant we had to take some serious decisions about the way we run our business.”

Zurich focused, amongst other things, on getting the right people in the right roles, Grieve says. “The transformation has already paid off. Our results have been pleasing,” he explains. “We have seen a decline in business volumes due to some of the action taken, but our ongoing focus around our plan is really paying off – I’m particularly pleased about the improvement in underwriting results despite challenging market conditions and lower premium volumes. We’ve also implemented a number of market-leading claims initiatives which have had a positive impact on the cost of claims and service levels.

“We expect to improve our performance through the delivery of a focused growth strategy – and we will continue to invest in enhancing our propositions and service. As an example, we have recently launched our new Broker Value Proposition and this has gone down extremely well amongst the broking community. Very simply, we need to make it easy for our brokers to do business with us and further initiatives to achieve this objective will be rolled out in the coming months.”

Regarding Zurich South Africa’s prospects, he continues: “Having reshaped our organisation and delivered an improved set of financial results, we are now in a strong position to take ourselves to the next level.

“Our multi-segment multi-distribution business strategy places a clear focus on identifying both distribution and market segment opportunities that will support future growth – we are all confident that the outlook is really positive.

“Zurich is a global super brand and we want to exploit this to the maximum to ensure that the African market benefits, as the rest of the world does.”

With significant local and international sales, underwriting and claims expertise supporting Zurich’s ambitious plan, Grieve says it has “every opportunity” to increase market share and reinforce its position as a leading insurer. Zurich in South Africa is headquartered in Johannesburg and has a network of offices throughout the country. It has a subsidiary insurance company in Botswana and an associate company in Mauritius. The local operation reports into Dubai.

“Taking into account the strong growth potential of Africa and the fact that the region has been relatively resilient through the economic turmoil, it is an important market for Zurich,” Grieve says. “Our local team has put hearts and souls into strategic thinking and attracted industry expertise in sectors relevant to the region and our robust plans.”

Zurich operates in the domestic, commercial, small commercial and Corporate segments, including the specialist Marine and Engineering markets, transacting all lines of business within these segments. The company markets its products almost exclusively through insurance brokers who provide very valuable advice to clients on product, price and claims assistance.

Website: www.zurich.co.za