Now some four months into his role as CEO of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), Matthew Hill (pictured) is a man on a mission – a mission to reinforce the good the institute’s professions represent to society.
In an exclusive interview with Insurance Business, Hill noted that his appointment was a departure from the norm for both the CII and himself given that he had spent his entire working life serving the public sector. It had been quite an eye-opening experience, he said, as before joining, he had a “sterile” but all too common view of insurance as essentially a bilateral transaction.
Insurance, he highlighted, exists to connect people with one another. “I’m paying my home insurance, not in the hope that the insurance company will give me some money if my house burns down, but in the knowledge that if my neighbour’s house burns down, I will help them out and vice versa,” he said. “And it’s the creation of those connections that I find both inspiring and intensely interesting.”
The vast majority of the public likely has no inkling of the connections at the heart of how insurance works, he said, and he’s passionate about sharing that message as a means of promoting the value of insurance to how society operates. It’s a message that ties in closely with the societal purpose laid out in the Charter of the CII, he said.
“For understandable reasons, some might describe the CII as having become quite focused on its commercial activity,” he said. “And it is true that the last two to three years have seen some very significant financial pressures, not least because of the pandemic.
“Perhaps, we had lost sight a little of that public mission and focused on the transactional commercial activity that brings our revenue now. But now, with our financial pressures starting to appear in the rearview mirror, we’ve got an opportunity to re-establish a very clear focus on that mission.”
The purpose of the CII is to build trust and confidence in the insurance and financial planning sectors by empowering competent, ethically-centred professionals through education and training. In recent years, he said, the balance of power has tended to focus on the income to be made from selling qualifications and how that income would best be deployed. That needs to change, to focus firstly on formulating world-class learning, defining its value and delivering those qualifications.
At the root of being able to do that is creating a genuine mindset shift across the entire organisation. “There is quite a significant leadership and associated cultural change that is needed at CII headquarters,” he said. “I mean no criticism by this because the organisation has been under significant financial pressure, so it’s not surprising that it has become very focused on commercial value.”
From conversations with members, Hill said he has detected a “huge appetite” for the CII as a professional body to develop a laser-focused approach to promoting the value of insurance and financial planning and to have a place at the table with policymakers, regulators and relevant government departments.
In April of last year, the CII launched its new five-year, ‘Strategic Plan 2023-2027’ which was based on six key themes:
“I have felt no need or motivation to change this strategy,” Hill said. “I think it’s very strong and it’s very good.
“Where I think I can add greater value is in the translation of that strategy into delivery. That means getting us properly aligned to its strategic pillars, and making sure we’ve got really robust plans, whose success is measurable in each of the six areas of our strategy. Where we are [with regards to each pillar] is a bit of a mixed picture but, to me, that speaks of nothing more than the opportunity we have to move the whole thing to the next level.”
Though it’s still early days for Hill and his plans to refocus and revitalise the organisation, he shared a clear vision for what a successful first year in post would look like to him. Firstly, he said, he would like to see the internal organisation and all its colleagues infected with his enthusiasm for the CII’s Chartered mission. “I’d like to be able to ask anyone at any level or function in our headquarters what they’ve done today and hear them tell me they’ve helped improve public confidence in the insurance and financial planning sectors.”
The second ambition is to convey the strength of its conviction to the institute’s members. “If I can get to the end of 12 months having established myself as someone in whom members can place their trust, that would delight me,” he said. “And I’ll be working very hard to achieve that. The third thing is really about the translation of the strategic ambitions set out in our strategic plan into robust, practical deliverables and having a few of those to show for at the end of 12 months.”
