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Jean-Louis Laurent Josi
(CEO - Oman Insurance Company)
OIC is solid & stable and customer
satisfaction is our priority
Jean-Louis Laurent Josi came to Oman Insurance Company with renowned insur-
ance expertise, astute strategic vision and remarkable achievements in his previous
roles. His entrepreneurial leadership, local market knowledge, and remarkable
breadth of experience gained in both mature and emerging markets, guided Oman
Insurance towards significant milestones. Since he handled the management of the
company, Jean-Louis Laurent Josi has always strived to make OIC become a reference
in the region for excellent customer service and to provide outstanding insurance solu-
tions that help create and protect wealth and wellbeing, as well as developing superior
insurance propositions that customers recommend. He believes that quality is never an
accident, it’s a deliberate practice. Al Bayan Magazine met Jean-Louis on the occasion
of its annual special issue and conducted the following interview.
* Covid-19 has accelerated changes in the insurance industry in so many dif-
ferent ways. How did you adapt to these changes and what is your business
model to deal with the current circumstances and to ensure the current and
future success of your company?
- The pandemic has clearly demonstrated that the digital transformation of our busi-
ness is paramount. As an industry, in the region, we still have a long way to go but I
see Covid-19 as a very positive wake-up call. This pandemic has as well reinforced
the critical role we have as insurers namely that to help and support our clients when
they are going through difficult times. At OIC, we clearly see this as our key role as
insurer: once risk management measures have not been able to prevent a disaster
from happening, we will pay claims as soon as possible. This is the main service we
sell. Similarly, and this has been particularly exacerbated during the Covid environ-
ment, when a claim is not payable, we make sure to explain to the insured the ratio-
nale behind our decision.
We were well prepared
* Insurtech and digitalization are driving the future of insurance industry. What
did you, as a company, do in that sense?
- Our digital transformation was initiated well before the pandemic struck. Thanks to
that, when we had the hard confinement in 2020, we were able to switch off from
the office and switch on from the personal places of the employees without any issue
and this for all employees from underwriters, distribution teams to call center agents.
That was a pretty exceptional achievement. Also, thanks to the pandemic, partial or
total work from home is now becoming a norm. This actually accelerated the plan
that we had pre-Covid i.e. to progressively let employees to work several days per
week from home.
Challenges linked to the structure of the market
* What are the most challenges the insurance is facing?
- I see several challenges. One is linked to the structure of the market where we still
have too many insurers and too many players who do believe that they can buy mar-
ket share with one main outcome: prices going down. It is a loser’s game but it is still
there and impacting the profitability of the market. A second challenge, but linked to
the previous one, is that pricing for different risks has reached extremely unreason-
able level. For instance, we still see today companies pricing motor risk taking into
account the covid environment while Covid is basically gone in terms of severity &
frequency. A similar trend has been seen in the medical business with extremely low
prices while the “positive” impacts of Covid are gone. Third challenge: several bro-
kers do not play their advisory role well. Too many are acting like a procurement
company and focus on prices only without taking into consideration the financial
solidity of the company, the customer satisfaction of the company, the claims man-
agement of the company or the quality of the reinsurers being used. Similarly, in
terms of broker commissions, I see two contradictory trends. The first one is with bro-
kers asking always higher commissions to compensate for the always lower premi-
ums that they sell… while, for the second trend, I see certain intermediaries basical-
ly ready to sell their advices at close to zero commissions, giving the message to
their client that their advices are not worth a lot. None of these trends is sustainable.
Our customers are really loyal to us
* What are the latest achievements and developments of your company?
- A key achievement is linked to our relentless focus on customer satisfaction which
is reflected in our results with 89% of our clients saying that they are satisfied or very GCC region. Last but not least, we have increased our customer satisfaction by 89
satisfied with OIC. This is why our customers are so loyal to us since they do under-
575
stand the quality of being with a stable company that put customer satisfaction as a
priority. Internally, we make sure to walk the talk: we have a customer satisfaction
committee and our bonus is notably linked to the satisfaction index. It goes without
saying that focusing so much on the customer experience requires investments but,
ultimately, we know that quality of service is valued by the majority of clients.
As part of our investments in customer experience, we have also worked a lot on the
digitalization of the company, digitalization that we see as a key pillar for our future
growth. Surprisingly, while everybody speaks abundantly about digital, the insurance
digital maturity in the region is still pretty low especially compared to other regions.
In a way, this is good news since it will give a competitive advantage to those who
invest in their digital future.
Another key development for OIC is to invest in underdeveloped lines of business
like life business or home business. While in many countries around the world these
lines have a very high penetration and is being understood by clients as a key pro-
tecting mechanism, the local penetration is still low which I see as an opportunity.
Local insurers have, on too many occasions, used and abused the reinsurers
* Global reinsurance companies have settled huge compensation due to
Covid-19 & natural catastrophes. Are we starting to see an increase in the
prices and conditions of some lines in the Middle East and North Africa simi-
lar to the rest of the world?
- Local insurers have, on too many occasions, used and abused the reinsurers. For
instance, the property business is barely profitable and several reinsurers require
their cedants to share their motor business as a compensation. But what will happen
in 2022 when the profitability of the motor business will collapse? Insurers and rein-
surers will lose money. It is time to have lines of business being profitable on their
own and to increase rates when it is necessary. If a cheaper price is again the easy
solution for tomorrow, the credit risk of the insurers will increase since they will have
no other option to use Tier 2 or Tier 3 reinsurers. Some will say that local govern-
ments should build their own local reinsurance company in order to be less depen-
dent on international reinsurers. I don’t believe in that strategy which basically would
ask local governments to bear the losses international reinsurers are currently pay-
ing for. The only solution is to have long term balanced relationships between all the
stakeholders which requires courage, professionalism and expertise from notably
insurers and intermediaries.
We are proud of what our team have achieved
* Are you satisfied from you results in 2021? what are your expectations for 2022?
- We are a listed company and our results still have to be approved by the Board so
no release of figures at this stage. That said, 2021 was again an interesting year but
I am proud of what our teams have achieved during these uncertain times. Our
results also confirm the appropriateness of our focus on building financial solidity &
stability, customer experience and digital transformation. On top of that, I am thrilled
that OIC has been granted “in-principle” approval from Lloyd’s to launch Syndicate
2880 under the Syndicate-in-a-Box initiative. The syndicate will operate on the
Lloyd’s platform under the DIFC. We will provide, lead and follow capacity on region-
al and international facultative business, and will be the first syndicate to operate
from the Lloyd’s Dubai Platform. Furthermore, we recently launched our regional
insurance medical solution which will give employees access to a regional network
of 13,000 medical providers. This medical solution was designed with the objective
of providing a uniform and comprehensive benefit plan for employees working in dif-
ferent branches of an organization located in different parts of the Middle East and
percent which is an extremely good result and above our target despite the tough
environment and Covid being still here.
AL BAYAN ECONOMIC MAG - ISSUE 602 - JANUARY 2022