Camargue invests in the future

However, there are companies which are trying to be proactive in mitigating this problem. One such company is liability insurance product supplier Camargue, and Managing Director Mitch Marescia says that the Group is reaping the benefits of its investment in human capital, which has and continues to be a major focus area for the company going forward.

 

Camargue was started in 2001 with the vision of bringing value added risk solutions to the liability market, and to take liability insurance and turn it into a business empowering vehicle.

 

In order to achieve this, the company needs a consistent flow of young talent coming into the company, not only to buy into the company’s vision, but to demonstrate a passion for the industry. It was with this focus that the company established its Naledi programme which offers life skills coaching to high school pupils.

 

"Ours is a knowledge-based industry, so every skill we use is human talent, proficiency and ability. A highly specialised discipline, , not many people know and understand the intricacies of the liability industry. We need to change that. From the outset we realised this, and we also were cognisant that it needs to start early. Through the Naledi programme we enter into schools and coach youth on issues such as personal management, goal setting, managing themselves and the environment around them,” says Marescia.

 

This support then continues at a tertiary level where the company takes a selection of the pupils that it coached and continues its mentorship training with a first Year Learnership followed by a second year Internship.

The company also has a long-standing agreement with the University of the Witwatersrand. "We offer two Honours Scholarships in Risk Management and Insurance and a research grant for a post graduate MBA student who selects a topic that advances the body of knowledge in our niche of the insurance industry.” After grooming the students at university, Camargue offers the most promising students positions at the company.

"We have realised that our brokers also need to find out more about the liability industry, which is why we established the Liability Academy for Brokers (LAB). It does not benefit Camargue if brokers do not know about our products. The more they know, the more the company can grow,” says Marescia.

 

Marescia points out that LAB content can be accessed from the Camargue website and is a broker-driven programme, whereby these professionals can find out more information about topics such as fundamentals of liability insurance, the consumer protection act, commercial crime, cyber risk, directors and officers liability cover, employment practices liability and general liability.

"Currently, about 3 000 brokers have gone through our LAB programme and we envisage that this will grow over time. The LAB offers brokers a broad base of benefits because as they find out more about Camargue’s products, they are able to sell sophisticated products into the market. It is also an opportunity for us to form solid relationships with brokers, as we see them as key individuals to the Group’s success. This is an on-going process,” says Marescia. He adds that empowering the entire value chain of business and industry, as well as using tertiary institutions to support the company is a strategy which Camargue has worked very hard to achieve.

 

Marescia feels that education is the key to empowerment, and the company is going to be using its staff as a key driver of its vision to expand into Africa. "Africa has a lot of potential; it presents many interesting opportunities. Companies are starting to look beyond the risk that Africa presented in the past and are now gearing themselves towards similar expansion plans. We are facing exciting times as a company,” concludes Marescia.