Leading a scale-up business that offers the Australian market a ‘liberating’ insurance product – that is the massive opportunity in front of Natasha Gale (pictured), the newly appointed chief executive of ARAG Services Australia. Here the former general manager shares her vision and why she thinks a “truly exciting” future awaits.
Referring to legal expense insurance (LEI) – which is little known in Australia compared to other ARAG markets such as the UK and Canada – Gale told Insurance Business: “We’re not just bringing another commercial product; we’re not just bringing another liability product; we’re bringing a product that offers real choice for clients. If you’ve got the right insurances, it gives you freedom, it gives you flexibility, and it gives you choice.
“I think with LEI, what this product provides is that choice and freedom for businesses, particularly for some of these smaller businesses that don’t have the same big support and business resourcing that larger businesses do. For me, that’s the vision – to provide a product that gives access to those who potentially would not be able to afford, or feel they couldn’t access the legal environment without it being a burden financially, allowing them to make better decisions.”
The CEO – who spent 12 years in banking & finance before making the shift to insurance about two decades ago – believes that having that clear vision and being able to articulate the same to the underwriting agency’s partners and broker networks will be important as they take the next steps towards expanding the ARAG unit.
For Gale, though, the opportunity is two-fold.
“The thing that excites me is that we’re bringing this innovative product to a pretty conservative market, and a market that has, and will continue to have, challenges. I think what we offer is something that has a strong need and is currently missing in the market. Most businesses and individuals would have had some form of legal action against them or taken action against another party over the past 12 months. Having LEI provides the safety net that protects and offers choice.
“Also, there’s few opportunities in your career where you get to build something from the ground up, not only product-wise but the people and the culture.”
Currently the two-year-old business is manned by eight people, including Gale who is laser-focussed on growing ARAG Services Australia.
The new chief noted: “We are looking to bring more distribution people onboard, so we’re recruiting for those roles now. COVID and some of the challenges that we’ve had over the last 12 months have delayed the expansion a little bit more than we probably would have liked, but we’ve got hardworking, good people and they’re really committed.
“We’ve gone from the start-up phase to scale-up phase. Expanding our footprint in the Australian market and getting growth is critical. You can’t have a business if you don’t have sales and aren’t continually looking for opportunities. So, that’s very much a key for us – leveraging the opportunities with our key partners. It’s really focussing in on how we work towards that scale-up and building out the footprint.”
Meanwhile Gale cited the “brilliant support” from the wider ARAG Group, as well as the fact that she and chief operating officer Antoinette von Wendt complement each other’s skill sets. The CEO also tipped her hat to her predecessor, who facilitated the agency’s inception and held the reins from 2019.
“She’s done an amazing job bringing the vision and knowledge here [from Germany],” said Gale, highlighting von Wendt’s task of moving to Australia and navigating her way through the legalities of setting up what is poised to be a successful company in a new country.
The ARAG Services Australia boss added: “There is really no other competitor in the market for us in LEI. We have local people in distribution, claims, and underwriting teams all based in Australia. And we don’t do anything else except LEI; this is what we’re good at. We have a good product that supports both businesses and individuals when they need to access the legal environment.
“Launching a new product in a hard market and in the middle of a pandemic certainly has made it interesting. It’s a double-edged sword. It presents challenges but also huge growth opportunities for us.”
