TRACING THE PATH OF A REMARKABLE CORPORATE

TRANSFORMATION WITH JUDE GOMES

Q: In light of your tenure with the organisation, how would you sum up Union Assurance’s transformation into what it is today?

A: The company has embarked on a remarkable and robust transformation journey, resulting in its current thriving state.

With a successful track record spanning over 30 years, the operational strategy of the company had its merits. However, recognising the need to adapt to the rapidly changing macro environment and align with our future ready strategy, we identified key pillars to drive the company’s growth momentum.

These pillars encompassed repositioning the brand, establishing digital supremacy, expanding distribution channels and enhancing our talent pool.

As an integral part of our transformation journey, we proudly unveiled a striking new identity for Union Assurance, symbolising the commencement of the company’s strategic transition. The freshly launched logo, inspired by the circle of life and accompanied by the powerful theme of ‘Your Life, Our Strength,’ heralded a remarkable new positioning for Union Assurance.

This reimagined identity marked an exciting journey for the company, paving the way to fulfil the cherished Sri Lankan dream of a better and secure life.

The second focus revolved around achieving digital supremacy, empowering Union Assurance to provide value to customers to proactively adapt to the ever-changing operating landscape. With a relentless drive, Union Assurance re-strategised and step changed the digital ecosystem, with a specific focus on making life insurance more accessible and engaging, and easier for customers.

On distribution expansion, our concerted effort was to broaden distribution channels and boost new business volumes, representing yet another significant milestone during our strategic transition.

Union Assurance rationalised its branch footprint to include 85+ locations islandwide, staffed by 4,000+ employees, catering to our target customer segments with customised solutions. We broadened our base, and introduced new business verticals to strengthen our reach and value generation.

The company underwent operational restructuring and reengineering to infuse more agility and flexibility. As part of this transition, we refocussed on organisational restructuring, streamlining management layers, empowering our people and ensuring a more even distribution of power.

This reshaping led to the establishment of a winning culture, emphasising ‘One Team-One Goal’ and a collective ‘we’ ethos replacing ‘I.’ Employees were inspired to connect to a higher purpose while being empowered to learn and grow as they pursued their career goals.

Consequently, Union Assurance was recognised among the best workplaces in Asia by Great Place to Work® and endorsed for various leadership qualities.

These efforts resulted in substantial financial improvement, solidifying our position in the sector. We exceeded expectations across all key financial indicators with our performance over the past three years, standing out compared to the sector in general and our previous growth trajectory.

While the sector recorded a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11 percent in regular new business premiums since 2020, Union Assurance achieved almost double the sector average at 20 percent. As a result, our company became the second largest regular new business producer in 2022, climbing from fourth place in 2019.

Q: What can you say about Union Assurance’s digitalisation?

A: We were resolute in our pursuit of digital supremacy, making digitisation a cornerstone and differentiator of our strategy. Even before the pandemic, we had already embarked on a digital journey, focussing on digitising the fundamental pillars of fulfilment, delivery and engagement.

Recruitment and onboarding were of utmost importance, and we streamlined these processes through virtual means. The Virtual Training Centre of Excellence was established, ensuring our teams were well equipped to embrace the digital landscape.

To achieve end-to-end digitalisation, we also developed the Digital Advisor Toolkit, a cutting-edge platform with ‘first-in-market’ features to empower our distributors and bank partners, thus simplifying the purchasing process. Additionally, the FAME virtual agency management platform enabled us to efficiently oversee and enhance the performance of our sales force.

Moreover, our groundbreaking initiative, the Clicklife app, was launched in 2019, revolutionising the life insurance sector in Sri Lanka and elevating the customer value proposition to unprecedented levels. Since its inception, the Clicklife app has seamlessly integrated into the company’s customer management strategy, forming an indispensable part of its comprehensive ecosystem.

Q: How has the business improved its focus on customer needs?

A: Union Assurance’s transformation was driven by an unwavering focus on customer-centricity. In line with this customer first mindset, we embarked on a comprehensive digitisation journey, ensuring all our platforms became user-friendly and easily accessible to our valued customers.

This transformation empowered them to effortlessly purchase insurance and take advantage of self-service options, making their experience seamless and efficient.

Recognising the paramount importance of understanding our customers, we have continued to invest substantially in customer insights, research and data analytics. By doing so, we gain valuable insights into their needs and preferences, enabling us to tailor our offerings and services to exceed their expectations.

Our commitment to staying ahead in customer understanding remains unwavering, ensuring that we continuously evolve to deliver the best possible experiences for our customers.

Q: What is Union Assurance’s outlook for the coming years?

A: In the face of environmental uncertainties shaped by global economic trends, market volatility, geopolitical developments and various other changes, our steadfast commitment to a customer-centric approach with digitisation has been the driving force behind our remarkable and sustained growth.

Supported by our focus on empowering Sri Lankans to pursue their dreams with peace of mind, we are confident that Union Assurance will be able to continue breaking new ground and reshaping the sector.

– Compiled by Dona Senara
INTERVIEWEE DETAILS

Jude Gomes
Chief Executive Officer

COMPANY DETAILS

Telephone:2990990 | Email:info@unionassurance.com | Website:www.unionassurance.com