FEATURES
THE YEAR AHEAD
RICHARD FELEDY Deputy managing director ALLIANZ AUSTRALIA
Allianz Australia this year took out both ANZIIF’s and AB+F’s General Insurance Company of the Year awards, as well as Insurance Business’s Insurer of the Year. Richard Feledy is extremely proud of these accolades. “It’s recognition of the great work that 4,500 employees at Allianz wake up and deliver for our customers and partners on a daily basis,” he tells Insurance Business. Reflecting on 2017, Feledy is also proud of the industry’s response to Cyclone Debbie, which has so far resulted in insurers receiving more than 72,000 claims and racked up a damage bill in excess of $1.6bn. “We’re getting much better at serving our customers during events like Debbie, and with claims finalisation rates now running significantly ahead of similar events, I think it’s a real testimony to our industry,” he says. On 1 January, Feledy takes over the role of
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“It’s critical that we start to almost replicate, I think, what’s been done in the online banking community” managing director of Allianz Australia, replacing Niran Peiris (who joins the Allianz SE Board of Management). He’s looking forward to continuing to deliver on the key pillars of Allianz’s strategy, including enhancing its customer focus. “There’s a real opportunity for us and our industry to simplify our products and make sure that we’re always on, so that they are able to
connect with us and deal with us in a manner that suits them,” Feledy says, stressing the need to embrace technology. “It’s critical that we start to almost replicate, I think, what’s been done in the online banking community. It wasn’t that long ago when people would give up their lunch hours to go and stand in a bank queue in order to do their banking, whereas now you can do it when it suits you – walking down the street, sitting at home – and at whatever time and hour. “I think there’s a fantastic opportunity for us with our partners to ensure that we deliver those types of capabilities.” In recent times, Allianz has substantially invested in redesigning and rebuilding its SME platform, Allianz Alive, and has received highly positive feedback on its changes. “I think that’s a great example of some of the investment that we are making to hide some of the complexity in the business and ensure that we continue to interact in a productive way,” Feledy says. “We’re also looking to further enhance Allianz Alive by rolling out instalment billing and looking at what other product offerings we could make available, leveraging off the experience we’ve had to date.” Asked to cite the biggest challenge facing the industry, Feledy mentions the fact that change is the only constant. “It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about the economic landscape, technology, climate change, increasing regulation, or changing customer expectations, we need to ensure that we embrace and respond to that change,” he says. “You can see change and you can fear it, or you can see it – as we do at Allianz – as a fantastic opportunity to continually improve what we do and, more importantly, how we do it. Product simplification and providing better value and clarity to our customers is absolutely one of the areas of focus.” For Feledy, right now is an exciting time to work in insurance. “Everyone is looking for the best ways to be able to provide the products and services in a way that customers are looking for, and I think it’s a challenging landscape but full of opportunity – a very exciting year ahead!”
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8/11/2017 12:23:52 PM