Jude Gomes assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer at Union Assurance PLC, one of the largest Life Insurance solutions providers in the country, months before the sudden global COVID-19 pandemic disrupted businesses and economies everywhere. By taking the unconventional approach of including professionals outside the insurance industry to its c-suite team, Gomes and his team of experienced and dynamic professionals were able to steer a better prepared and agile organisation through the worst period of crisis, demonstrating its brand promise ‘Your Life, Our Strength’ to customers and Sri Lankans
Union Assurance was the first company to offer all existing and new customers a free COVID-19 insurance cover up to a million rupees. Gomes and his team leveraged the digital capability of the company to stay connected to its policyholders and engage the team to emerge from the challenge in a stronger position.
In this interview, Gomes takes us through some of the bold moves that set the stage for Union Assurance’s strong performance during the pandemic and beyond.
Can you tell us about the factors shaping the future of the insurance industry in Sri Lanka?
In the future, the industry as a whole will focus on three areas: digital adoption, product innovation and channel diversification.
Sri Lanka, thus has an unexploited opportunity to disrupt the industry through digitization and the simplification of protection to make insurance more accessible to the masses. The omni-channel approach has taken strides and is proving to be of value to customers and the insurance industry globally.
As its CEO, what is your vision for the future of Union Assurance?
Our vision is to transform Union Assurance into a new-age, customer-centric and digitally-savvy Life Company. We will do this by offering customers a choice to protect their individual needs through easy to understand propositions delivered across multiple platforms with simplified processes enabling all customers to self-service requirements, uninterrupted, 24×7.
Technology is transforming the financial services industry everywhere. How will insurance be different five years from now in Sri Lanka?
The insurance industry in Sri Lanka and other developing markets are highly dependent on a push strategy that relies on insurance advisors. While we acknowledge the advances made in digitization, cohesive strategies should be in place to attract, professionalize and retain the right talent in offering financial advice to our clients, supporting the customer on-boarding experience and complementing our delivery platforms.
There is no industry that has not been affected by digitization, and insurance is no exception. Omni-channel distribution models are gaining momentum in the insurance industry worldwide as it allows for reaching diverse customer segments through multiple channels such as website, mobile, web applications, social media, etc. In many markets, omni-channel is proving to be of immense value to the customers and the insurance industry.
Insurers also need to address the last mile issue, to make the claims journey seamless and swift, and make customers feel confident about the process. Such measures need investment in superior platforms to reach and service customers throughout their lifecycle.
Union Assurance is at the forefront of technology advancement in the insurance industry in its 30 years of operation
How has Union Assurance performed under your leadership? What would be your proudest achievement?
When I joined UAL, the company was at a crucial juncture in its transformational journey and needed leadership in simplification, innovation and digitization. Our approach was to set the industry benchmark for digital transformation in Sri Lanka by repositioning the company as a modern, customer-centric, digital life insurer.
The pandemic exacerbated the need for digital operating model, and Union Assurance is arguably one of the first companies to establish a fully digital operating model. The uncertainties of the COVID outbreak propelled the organisation to provide uninterrupted services to our customers and further instilled a digital culture in the organisation. We experienced double the growth in digital payments. More than 90% of our employees worked from home, support to customers was extended 24×7, top advisors created online advisor pages to reach customers, training was delivered online, while our island-wide teams used web conferencing to remain connected and ensured smooth operations during this time. Being able to be there meaningfully for our customers and our teams in a time of grave uncertainty was a great achievement for our entire leadership team who relentlessly drove the change.
What is the boldest decision you have ever had to make as a business leader?
Soon after being on-boarded, our leadership team initiated a journey of transformation to position Union Assurance as a modern, customer-centric, digital life insurer, and to address the lag in technology adaption within the industry. A more seamless, efficient and faster process was required to meet the growing digital presence of customers in a fast-evolving consumer landscape.
This was an opportunity to bridge the chasm between the tech-savvy, informed consumer and the trailing local insurance industry by first transforming Union Assurance as a brand that is ready to meet the demands of current day realities. We took the calculated risk of rebranding Union Assurance in March 2020, the same month Sri Lanka experienced the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, setting off one of the most disruptive periods across global markets.
The bold new brand identity consisting of a new logo depicting the circle of life with the tagline “Your Life, Our Strength”, marked the strategic repositioning of the company as the Trusted Protector of the Sri Lankan Dream. As a protector, Union Assurance had a formidable opportunity to deliver on its promise and offer much needed support to its policyholders during the unraveling pandemic.
What is the one leadership lesson you learned the hard way?
Delegating responsibility and empowering people to give leadership to or become agents of change is not always easy. It is a paradigm shift from micromanaging people to giving them the freedom to do what needs to get done. You not only have to learn to trust others, but they need to see it.
One of the hardest things is giving people the confidence to learn from failure, but profoundly rewarding because you develop people into creative, confident, and intelligent leaders, who may even have a healthy streak of audacity to embrace new ideas and drive change and growth.
We initiated a journey of transformation to position Union Assurance as a modern, customer centric, digital life insurer