MARSH SOUTH AFRICA
MARSH AFRICA
Finding the
Opportunity in Risk PRODUCTION: Timothy Reeder
A global leader in insurance broking and innovative risk management solutions, Marsh’s 30,000-strong team of experts advise individual and commercial clients of all sizes across 130 countries worldwide. In Africa, Marsh specialises in providing clients with the intellectual capital and industry experience to unlock the opportunity in risk.
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In today’s increasingly uncertain global business environment, Marsh is on hand to help clients to thrive by enabling them to anticipate, quantify and more fully understand the range of risks they face. On offer are services spanning risk management, risk consulting, insurance broking, alternative risk financing and insurance programme management. CENTURIES OF EXPERTISE Marsh is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC), a global professional services firm with a revenue of USD$13 billion annually and 60,000 employees worldwide. Since
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1871, clients from every industry, be they businesses, government entities, multinational organisations or individuals around the world, have relied on Marsh for trusted advice to represent their interests in the marketplace. Its long history gives Marsh, and its clients, the ability to make sense of an increasingly complex world, and help turn risks into new opportunities for growth. At its root, Marsh provides industryfocused consulting, brokerage and claims advocacy services, while leveraging data, technology and analytics to help reduce clients’ total cost of risk. Marsh uses a team approach to best provide for individual clients’ risk management and insurance needs; essentially, this means that each
partnership is overseen by a client executive, who draws exhaustively from industry and risk specialties to analyse, measure and help manage multiple risks. INDESTRUCTIBLE RELATIONSHIPS Also, pivotal to accomplishing clients’ goals every time are Marsh’s consulting, brokerage and claims advocacy services, all directed by colleagues who apply deep experience and knowledge of clients’ industries to result in broad-based risk coverage. “Our greatest assets in our business,” summed up Marsh Africa CEO Jurie Erwee in conversation with leadershiponline.co.za, “are our client relationships, which have been built around our clients’ needs.”
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INDUSTRY FOCUS: FINANCE
Marsh SA’s CEO, Spiros Fatouros, expanded upon how important Marsh’s carefully tailored solutions are to its ongoing success. “A huge benefit to insurance broking is the advisory role we play in selecting or even creating a product to suit the specific needs of a client, and we pride ourselves on the advice that we provide,” he explained. “Marsh’s global footprint has taken over 25 years to build and allows us to service clients locally around the globe. People
// OUR GREATEST ASSETS IN OUR BUSINESS ARE OUR CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS //
Spiros Fatouros - CEO
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don’t often care if you’re the biggest, it’s always about the service you provide. “The real benefit of working with Marsh is the tailored local delivery that is leveraged off a global network of experts.” A MARKET RIFE WITH OPPORTUNITY According to the Oxford Business Group’s recent study, the South African insurance sector is, by many measures, one of the most advanced in the world. It has a premium-to-GDP ratio that is among the highest anywhere, and its insurers are wellregulated, well-managed and innovative, while it is also a market which is becoming ever more sophisticated through the introduction of new legislation. Conversely, it is in some ways not a mature market, given that much of the country is unbanked and uninsured or underinsured. Financial inclusion is limited, and even some basic policies are optional.
For a company as well-run and organised as Marsh, this situation presents both significant opportunities and a number of key challenges. According to Ralph Mupita, CEO of Old Mutual: “Expansion into the rest of Africa by South Africa’s big insurance players is driven by the nascent opportunity of insurance penetration and seeing a growing middle market that will need insurance products over time. “There are still a lot of growth opportunities in South Africa but growth rates are more attractive in the rest of the continent given the growth of the middleincome base, rates of urbanisation and nascent financial services.” UNLOCKING POTENTIAL These are untapped markets, both within South Africa’s borders and in the wider region, and present lucrative opportunities for those able to seize them. The question is, how best to tap them? Alternative economic and business news platform Ujuh identified at the turn of the year the five trends it felt would be central to shaping the South African insurance industry in the immediate future. Among these were regulatory changes and the increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather conditions, but two aspects which Marsh has clearly taken to heart are the need of product innovation and effective application of the necessary technology. Ujuh states that, “insurers will continue working around the clock to develop innovative products that meet the everchanging needs of customers.” Jurie Erwee explained how Marsh is so well-placed to capitalise on the abundant scope of the wider African market. “The spirit of innovation is firmly entrenched in our DNA,” he began. “Marsh has pioneered a great number of concepts including the birth of insurance broking in the 19th century. Africa offers a lot of promise long term and we are here to continue to invest. We will see a return on those investments as long as we continue to work through the challenges we face as a country and business collectively.
MARSH SOUTH AFRICA
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“In a fast-changing world, the industry will continue to evolve rapidly,” were the thoughts of Spiros Fatouros, as he recognised how far consumer needs have shifted even in recent years. “There is a real trend towards a demand-based economy rather than one of ownership. Ecosystems are changing and disruptors like Uber and Airbnb are changing the way consumers behave, which will no doubt have an impact on their insurance needs.” RISE OF CYBERCRIME Certain types of risk are becoming more and more prevalent, not least among them environmental and geopolitical concerns. Most pressingly, findings from a report in April from TheCityUK and Marsh indicate that cybercrime is now the number one risk for financial and related professional services firms. There
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is no escaping that company boards must do more to meet the challenge, and with the emergence of such risks Marsh is better positioned than anyone else to respond to negate the potentially ruinous consequences. Marcus Scott, Chief Operating Officer of TheCityUK, explained that, “cyber security is now a major risk demanding board-level oversight as companies find themselves under siege from cyberattacks. In fact, for many of our members it may well be the biggest single risk. As well as mitigating against external attacks, boards must be aware of supply chain threats which could penetrate a business through internal channels. It’s essential for all boards to have robust governance systems in place to manage these risks.” In response to the emergence of cyber security as a top priority, Mark Weil, Chief Executive Officer of Marsh UK &
Ireland, concluded with how Marsh as a whole will do everything within its power to provide peerless protection. “While there has been much discussion on the technical aspects of cyber risk, little is said on what company boards should be doing to address this threat. Boards need to drive forward digital transformation to maintain their competitive edge, while ensuring they are resilient to the many forms of cyber-attacks digitisation opens them up to. “We want boards to be able to have a ‘no regrets’ position on cyber, meaning that if a breach does occur, they know that everything reasonable has been done to minimise harm.”
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Published by CMB Media Group Chris Bolderstone – General Manager E. chris@cmb-media.co.uk Sackville Place, 44-48 Magdalen Street, Norwich, NR3 1JU T. +44 (0) 20 8123 7859 E. info@cmb-media.co.uk www.cmb-media.co.uk CMB Media Group does not accept responsibility for omissions or errors. The points of view expressed in articles by attributing writers and/ or in advertisements included in this magazine do not necessarily represent those of the publisher. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained within this magazine, no legal responsibility will be accepted by the publishers for loss arising from use of information published. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in a retrievable system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher. Š CMB Media Group Ltd 2018
AS FEAT UR ED IN
ENTERPRISE AFRICA
AUG UST 2018