Insurance

Botswana’s Group Brand Manager, Tsaone Puleng takes on Corporate Social Impact.

Established 1980, Hollard is the largest independent insurance and insurance investment company in South Africa. Hollard Insurance Botswana being part of the international Hollard Insurance Group which includes businesses formed with strong local partners in Namibia, Mozambique, India, Pakistan, the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. The Hollard Botswana branch shares the Hollard Afro-centric vision and unwavering focus on designing and delivering new, appropriate and affordable insurance products designed for Africa’s unique needs. It has access to all its resources, skills, broker support programs and training; innovative products; infrastructure; customer-centric initiatives and product design capacity in both life and general insurance.

Joining the organization in 2018 as the Group Brand Manager with the work experience of Acting Public Relation and Marketing Manager, Tsaone Puleng has a background of Bachelor of Business Administration (marketing), marketing and communications at the University of Botswana and also a certificate from Botswana Accountancy Collage. Her entry year in Hollard Insurance Botswana marks significant at how it was the same year were Hollard Botswana took the initiative to get the organisation known using various communication channels of media the likes of radio and print.

“Hollard for a long time was known as a South-African company and our clients only came across it when dealing with our brokers and partners. Though we have a strong belief in long lasting partnerships we realised the need to have a voice of our own and we came up with a strategy to not only make ourselves known to Batswana but to also win their trust by creating the Tshepa Hollard Campaign. This campaign is aimed at listening to the voice of Batswana when it comes to insurance and making sure we tailor make our products and services to serve them in the best way possible and ensuring that we are held to the promises we have made to all our stakeholders. Hollard Insurance Botswana is a one stop shop as we have both life and short-term and we often say we insure everything and everyone that you love. ,” shares Group Brand Manager, Tsaone Puleng.

“Our ethos is to enable better futures and not only through our products and services but this extends to our partnerships and social impact. Whilst we understanding that insurance is immensely important especially in the world we live now, we acknowledge that the provision of our products and services on its own is not enough to ensure one’s better future. Our products and services on their own are able to ensure our clients better futures and ensure that future generations are well taken off however we operate within a communities in which we have a corporate responsibility to ensure that they too have a better future.

We believe in shared value and as corporate citizen we have taken it upon ourselves to improve the social and economic conditions in the regions we operate in through partnerships and Programmes not only in the now but that will span into the future. We have been in the market for 17 years and our partnerships have contributed to our staying power hence why we believe with the right partnerships we can also do a lot of social good Our survival translates to the success of partners and communities we serve regardless of the economic climate,” said Hollard Insurance Botswana’s Group Brand Manager, Tsaone Puleng.

She further expressed that Hollard’s focus has been on Youth and Women Empowerment alongside Financial literacy. A few years ago Hollard Partnered with Project124 Entrepreneurship Program which aims to build those better entrepreneurs. Project124 is the leading youth led and private owned entrepreneurship development program in Botswana, carefully crafted to revolutionize youth entrepreneurship and facilitate effective creation of sustainable jobs for young people around the country. Building the economy, one business at a time. The program reaches an average of 150 entrepreneurs in Botswana annually, and has now reached a consolidated average of 528 entrepreneurs in the last

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4 years who created exciting projects that continues to add value to different communities around the country.

Unemployment is a reality and it is destroying the resilience of young people especially in developing countries such as Botswana. Entrepreneurship is the sure plan any country can trust to tackle many of social ills in our communities. It doesn’t only take great ideas to bring the change, it also take great entrepreneurs to build sustainable businesses that will bring the impact hence why as Hollard we jumped at the opportunity of going into a partnership with Project 124. We are not enabling Project 124’s future but of the many entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs we can help them reach country wide.

Another initiative Hollard brought is streetwise finance. The seed for the StreetWise Finance programme was first sown when a group of Hollard’s bright and energetic financial professionals became aware of how poorly many of their own friends and family members managed their personal finances and how inadequately prepared, they were for retirement. (Even those with qualifications and jobs that involved taking care of corporate assets seemed to struggle with managing their own money!)

“The root cause was ALWAYS poor financial education – mixed with a dollop of intimidation because they were either embarrassed to admit how little they knew, and ask for the information they needed, or because there were cultural inhibitions about discussing money matters. There are also way too many Batswana who are living in the now, and not thinking about their financial needs in the future,” shares Group Brand Manager, Tsaone Puleng. She further narrates how all these issues combined, is the reason why the finances of many Batswana spiral out of control, leaving them vulnerable, desperate and potentially depressed. This programme aims to help individuals out of the hole they have dug themselves into or prevent them from getting there and we are currently working with our partners to take it into the communities we operate in.

The aftermath of the Covid 19 pandemic taught the organisation that in order to survive in the industry certain changes have to be made and in terms of transitioning the organization towards success in the ‘new normal’, Hollard made their strategies from feedback making decisions to digitalize services, product reconfiguring and coming up with new products that speak to the needs of their stakeholders. The pandemic brought about a lot of changes and Hollard responded to some of them by bringing in new products such as the SMME product offering to cushion the risks SMME’s face on the daily basis. We saw the borders close also to imports and Batswana were forced to produce their own food which is a good thing, so Hollard responded to that also by coming up with an Agri Product that ensures that all farming equipment, employees and produce are covered.

The biggest weakness identified is that Batswana are unsure on insurance and that the urban communities are more insured than those in the rural areas. Hence why Hollard has been focusing on educating Batswana on the importance of insurance and building partnerships that will ensure that insurance information and products reach even the remote areas. They are doing this through partnerships with the likes of Botswana Post through an affordable insurance product called Motshidisi Funeral Plan that requires one to only have a proof of ID (Omang). Hence why the Hollard partnered with post office after noticing they are more accessible and fast communication mode. Services such as motshidisi have made it easy and education drives to close the gaps of those that don’t know about insurance.

Concluding Hollard Botswana’s Group Brand Manager, Tsaone Puleng emphasised that “Listening and Responding to the bigger conversation in a solution driven way is critical for the survival of any business because we do not operate in a silo, we need people in order to succeed and our success is a win for those we serve.”

Our products and services on their own are able to ensure our clients better futures and ensure that future generations are well taken off however we operate within a communities in which we have a corporate responsibility to ensure that they too have a better future.