The leader of ever-growing insurance business Honan Insurance Group has backed further development of businesses throughout the Asia Pacific region as markets continue to grow.
Damien Honan, CEO of Honan Insurance Group, told
Insurance Business that the burgeoning markets north of Australia offer a great opportunity to grow business for those willing to take it.
“As the region is getting smaller, and if we take China and India out, the population of Asia is 650 million to 660 million and it is growing,” Honan said.
“That, if you like, is two America’s and those countries are developing quickly.
“The middle class is developing rapidly, and there is still poverty and basic living but it is changing quickly, and I think that many companies whatever industry they are in, in five, ten twenty years’ time they are going to say we should have gone there now how do we get there?”
“It is a slow build but as this region, not by actual land mass moving but in the sense of communication and obviously business, is getting smaller daily and I think if you want to be a player in the region you’ve got to start to have operations and ability to transact business in countries around South East Asia or else your clients are going to find someone who can.”
Honan stressed that the move into Asia may not be for all brokers.
“I think that if you are not really consciously growing your business in Australia, say you want to keep it a nice solid business and not looking to grow it, expanding into those regions is probably pointless,” Honan continued.
“ If your business is as we are, continually looking at avenues of growth and new streams of revenue and your clients are looking to expand to those regions, I think you’d be able to keep clients that are doing that and then attract clients.
“I think you need to be looking at doing something.”
Honan backed following existing clients, as moe Australian businesses expand overseas, as a safer way of growing an international business.
“To go into any foreign country and start from scratch and try and build a new business, recruit the right local people and start to develop local relationships to get business, particularly with the pricing there which is very cheap, I won’t say impossible but it takes a lot of capital and a lot of time,” Honan said.
“Doing that on the back of existing business that is opening up there is a better way to go.
“We are not looking to build massive profit revenues but certainly as a holistic approach to our business, it really provides a solution for our clients as they expand that we can deliver on a solution that they are looking for.
“We have a huge number of clients that operate in the region, certainly more than 200 Australian accounts that operate up in Asia and that gives us a competitive edge to be able to service and attract accounts.”
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