The theme of the recent BIBA conference – the insurance community – struck a chord with Ken Norgrove (pictured) who stepped into his role as CEO of RSA UK & International at the onset of this year – moving across from his previous position as CEO of RSA Scandinavia.
“I re-joined RSA eight years ago now, and have spent 30 of my 35 years in the industry with RSA – so I feel it is my family,” he said. “And a family lives in a community which for us is our competitors, the insurance brokers and the ecosystem that sits around us. Coming back [to the UK market], I’m seeing a lot of the same people around but also a lot of new people too. It’s 2010 since I was last in the market here and there’s now much better diversity across the industry, which is wonderful to see.”
Norgrove expressed his gratitude for the warm welcome back he had received both internally at RSA and across the wider piece, especially among brokers – many of whom remember him from 12 years ago. It’s a great feeling to be back in this dynamic market, he said, and fascinating to see first-hand how dramatically it has changed in recent years, particularly the broker market which has seen so much consolidation.
“There are now some massive broking houses and it’s great to see the strength of these British-based broking houses,” he said. “There’s also a lot of uncertainty as to what the future will bring with the private equity that backs some of those broking houses and where they will go in the next stages of their development. But they’re here to stay, they’re a big feature of the market and they bring with them exciting opportunities for insurers.”
Being part of the “best insurance market in the world” again is so exciting, Norgrove said, and what a time to return – with so many changes sweeping the space. Between the post-COVID environment, the FCA’s updated pricing practices, the ever-evolving behavioural changes in consumers’ habits and expectations, and the turmoil of the ongoing situation in Ukraine, this is a critical moment for the market.
“For us at RSA, this is also a super exciting time filled with great opportunity, with Intact as our new owners,” he said. “Because they’re learning about the UK and learning about RSA, with a view to investing for the long-term in the RSA business. They definitely have an ambition to grow the business and to outperform the market from a profitability point of view, and they have clear capabilities that they want to rely on to do that as they invest in the RSA business. So, it’s definitely not going to be dull over the next couple of years.”
Looking at the impressive growth and evolution of the Intact business gives a flavour of what the future will hold for RSA, he said, and Intact’s trajectory is especially impressive considering its blend of organic and inorganic growth. In addition, Intact has deep technical specialisms around pricing, data and underwriting, as well as market-leading digital capabilities.
The key area of focus both for Norgrove since he arrived to take on his new role, and his predecessor, is identifying the strategy of RSA UK&I and what it wants to be as a business.
It’s a relatively straightforward strategy, he said, and one formed of several core components – the business wants to further grow its regional, mid-market and SME footprint, to improve its customer service, to grow its London market specialty business significantly, and to use the strength of the new global specialty lines business it’s creating at the moment. Meanwhile, in personal lines, its focus is on its direct-to-consumer business.
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“We’re clear in terms of the business direction, and for us that entails a modernising of the RSA business,” he said. “The business needs significant modernising, both in its infrastructure and its digital capabilities to service the brokers. And so, for me, that becomes the real cornerstone of what we need to do.
“We need to improve our service immediately, we need to start to grow our business with the existing skill sets and capabilities we have. And then, over the next 18 months, we need to [utilise] the skills and capabilities that Intact has around digital, data, pricing and underwriting to strengthen our options to win in the regional market. We’re looking forward to competing in a much more assertive way in that market.”
Norgrove is already seeing this rejuvenated strategy translating well for brokers and he emphasised the significant brand attraction that RSA has across the market. That’s not something he takes for granted, he said, as he knows there are businesses out there spending years trying to build that level of brand loyalty and brand equity.
“What we haven’t got at the moment is the service to match that,” he said. “So, I think we owe it to the brokers to focus on giving them that service which matches the loyalty they’re giving to the brand - and to grow off the back of that. There’s no point in us growing indiscriminately from now with poor service. We’ve got to fix the service as we go and grow at the same time, and we’re looking to do both in parallel.
From his day-one conversations with brokers to his most recent discussions, he said, he has been hearing that they are already seeing improvements this year. RSA’s strategy of building momentum alongside service improvements is already converting into improvements in its service, its speed of reaction and its appetite to deliver more business.
“We can’t be everything to everyone because opening the pipe to everybody would just kill the service proposition,” he said. “So we’ve got to select who we’re going to play with and start off a little bit slower and build up momentum over time. The phrase I use internally is that we’ve got to go slow before we can go fast. It’s important that we do that so that we grow in a disciplined manner.
“[…] From a business point of view, this time is about us re-finding our feet in the market and starting to regain that confidence and trust, and just build up our market positioning. And building that confidence is not just externally but also internally within RSA. Re-finding our voice, our feet and our positioning in the market is what I’m looking to do. And for me, this year is about setting those foundations stones in place so we can really progress next year and start to see it come through in our financials as well.”
