Opening doors to overcome challenges
According to the recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Global Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Survey, the lack of skills in the financial services sector is one of the foremost concerns CEOs have regarding their businesses. This is particularly acute in technical areas where experience and suitable qualifications are needed in order to ensure competency.
However, there is a major drive in the industry to create a greater level of understanding in the industry for clients, and this also requires skills. FAnews caught up with New National Assurance Company (NNAC) to find out more about the appointment of the new Technical and Marketing Director, Hayley Schell, who will play a significant role in the company going forward.
Bringing experience to the table
Schell, previously a Reinsurance Broker Executive at Aon Benfield, took up office in January this year, and will be responsible for all aspects of the company’s reinsurance arrangements, underwriting standards and marketing of the new business function.
One of the key factors Schell will be bringing to the table at NNAC is a set of specific skills which she has acquired over a number of years in the industry. This will benefit the company’s ambitions as it seeks to consolidate its position as the country’s largest empowered short-term insurer, and activate the next level of growth.
Asked how she believed her appointment would assist NNAC in its outlook, Schell was pragmatic. “I believe that the concept of “the power of one” is over-rated! Rather, real power and potential comes from the collaboration of the many – this is what I bring to the team. My addition to this strong, ethical team is to complement their strengths. I’ve strong views about the benefit of partnerships and have chosen a team whose 43 year old history is built on a philosophy that nurturing relationships is what ultimately pays dividends.”
She adds that what motivated her to join NNAC was her belief that it was a very special organisation. “I’ve witnessed that the collective effort and passion of our UMA partners, our broker partners, our outsource partners, our reinsurers - and I can say the commitment of our team is what differentiates our offering. At NNAC it’s our goal to compete in our chosen market segment. Our strength is perpetuating the forgotten culture of good old fashioned relationships based on mutual benefit and trust, and for the broker or UMA who wants to get off the treadmill of being consumed by the big corporate environment, they will find the personal touch of NNAC an energising change.
The New National differentiator
Besides being responsible for technical standards and the reinsurance programme, Schell will also have the marketing of new business under her ambit. Reflecting on this, her views are refreshing. “New National will never be all things to all people; this is not our strategy. Our strategy will be neither passive nor aggressive, but it will be active – we will actively seek out like-minded partners, who share our value system towards relationships and personalised service, whose clients value the importance of a solid B-BBEE credential and where access to the decision-makers in the organisation is still just a phone call away.”
The age of the new underwriter
With the FSB pushing for an industry which is open and transparent towards customers, there have been calls for new underwriting standards to be implemented in the industry.
Schell supports this call and while she revels in the science of underwriting because it has strengthened our understanding of the behavior of risk, she believes that the tragedy is that the genius of this science is often reduced and offered to the end user in the form of the so-called black box or a rating matrix and twenty call centre questions, or worse an old outdated proposal form that no longer is entirely relevant to the changing nature of risk. “We need to correct this by returning to the art of underwriting.”
