Dipak Sahoo, Capgemini insurance practice leader in Australia and New Zealand, talks about making a conscious decision to have a career in insurance, the threats posed by non-insurance companies with hoards of data, and growing a business from five people to 5,000.
Why insurance?
It was a conscious decision. The sector was opening up in India for the private sector, especially with foreign insurer participation. At that time, I was driving a number of large capital market transformation programs and thought let me be the early bird in insurance.
How would you sum up insurance brokers in three words?
Know your customer.
How would you change the industry?
Bring the industry at par with other financial services organisations, when it comes to customer need and ability to engage with customer seamlessly.
Move from a traditional risk management model to risk prevention through technology innovation and analytics.
What’s the most important thing a broker can do to develop their business?
In the current environment, brokers need to focus on the following
Stay close to the client by constantly engaging with them across multiple channels
Know your client’s risk well to be able to provide him the best value
Stay relevant in a shift to B2C environment fuelled by digital transformation
If you were Prime Minister for one day, what would you do?
Declare it a holiday. It’s like having your cake and eating it too.
What’s the biggest challenge facing the industry today?
Challenge from non-traditional sectors driven by data, analytics and digital e.g. Google and Amazon. This can fundamentally change the way insurance is manufactured, underwritten and distributed.
Challenge to change the traditional operating model and adapt to the digital operating model driven by mobile, social, analytics and cloud.
What has been the highlight of your career?
The opportunity to set up two of the largest insurers operations in India. This tested my ability to the maximum extent in overcoming the challenges of logistics, operational inefficiencies and geographic and demographic diversities, growing the business from five people with no office to 5,000 people with 200 offices in two years.
What’s your favoured style of coffee?
Anytime up for a good cup of skimmed cappuccino.
NRL, AFL, soccer or other?
Mostly cricket (when India is playing).
Complete this sentence: If I wasn’t in insurance, I would be…an adventure tourism entrepreneur (remember the advice which was given to me about getting a job that I would love).
