The modern approach to training of the insurance companies’ executives!
The needs for targeted redesign of insurance market executives training!
By COSTAS PAPAIOANNOU
T
he Greek Insurance Market aims to approach the European production averages, which it falls significantly short of! At the recent open event “Veyond Risk”, organized by the Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies at the “Great Britain” hotel, the President, Mr. Alexandros Sarrigeorgiou, stated:
“As far as all the issues mentioned today are concerned –natural disasters, health and retirement savings– Greece is at the ¼ of the European average. The risks are real and we remain practically uninsured”.
That is, since ¼ corresponds to 25%, we still have 75% left to approach the European average growth rates!
So the question arising is the following:
How can Insurance Market executives help to achieve this growth?
The truth is that today, Insurance Market executives are more educated than ever before!
They have been trained in various different subjects, have attended many training programs and have adapted their knowledge to what modern legislation and supervision impose, and yet at the same time there is still a gap, which is reflected in the overall results of the Insurance Market!
Not because the Insurance Market’s executives do not know enough, but because everything they know does not yet function within them as a unified whole, or rather, to put it more correctly, because they have not been trained and accustomed to facing the challenges of the Insurance Market as a unified whole!
Fortunately, this is something that can be addressed through educational methodology!
Modern insurance reality does not require fragmented knowledge, but an understanding of the whole!
• It requires the ability to connect numbers
and KPIs with the growth strategy.
• It requires the ability to connect the Insurance Market people with the results they bring directly to the companies they work for.
• It requires the ability to connect the decisions made by market executives with the results that these decisions bring over time to the entire market!
The modern planning of the training of the Insurance Market’s executives must result from the Market’s existing needs due to developments in issues such as mergers of activities, Bancassurance, current climate risks, new economic data of the Market, the new geopolitical environment and the way it affects insurance risks, as well as other similar challenges that the Market faces today.
More specifically, today's executives should be trained to become effective in areas related to:
• how to transform complexity into efficiency
• how to dare to make difficult decisions, in times of uncertainty and financial demands
• the integrated concept of management in the insurance sector
• the evaluation of insurance products and services
• Business Plans and the general planning of insurance companies
• the evaluation of the contribution and use of modern technology to the efficiency of insurance companies
• the value assessment of insurance products and services, with an understanding of economic, social and business data.
Insurance executives' decisions can no longer be made based solely on experience, their fragmented knowledge on various subjects and their intuition. The decision making also requires synthesis, judgment and a structured approach!
What differentiates an executive is not what he knows, but the way he thinks and the way he uses what he knows!
For the next step in the development of education within the Greek Insurance Market, the goal is NOT the development of new knowledge and skills, but the understanding of the whole!
That is, for executives to see the whole picture and how to make daily administrative decisions, with consistency and with their eyes on the future!
WHO IS WHO
– Costas
Papaioannou
He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Athens MBA, with a specialization in Insurance and Banking Administration and a certified instructor of insurance subjects, with many years of educational experience.
He is the author of the books: “Investments and Insurance”, Spyrou Publications, 2021, “Insurance Agents”, Spyrou Publications, 2022 and “Basic Training of Insurance Intermediaries” in the Life and General Insurance sectors and products, Spyrou Publications, 2024. In addition, he was a co-author of books published by the Hellenic Institute of Insurance Studies and the Hellenic Banking Institute. He is a columnist for “Next Deal”. His articles are also published uploaded on the website of the Athens University MBA (https://mba.econ. uoa.gr/).
He has studied Economics and postgraduate studies in Insurance. He has worked in management training positions in some of the largest insurance companies and banks, operating in the Greek market.