Summary of Performance
NEW ZEALAND OPERATIONS
NICK HAWKINS
CEO, New Zealand
IAG’s New Zealand operation delivered sustainable returns during the year and is poised for growth following a period of investment.
Our intermediary brand, NZI, has gained momentum with a series of high profile advertising, marketing and sponsorship campaigns, which relaunched the iconic New Zealand brand.
We also strengthened our broker relationships throughout the year to market-leading levels and broadened the commercial product offering. This included the establishment of the NZI Professional Risks business unit, formed in response to broker requests for a complete suite of liability products. It includes professional indemnity and directors’ and officers’ cover.
Our Net Promoter Score for NZI – which measures the likelihood of brokers recommending NZI products to clients – is the highest in the New Zealand industry.
Our direct brand, State, continued to be the direct insurance market leader with a strong focus on profitable growth. We embarked on a number of initiatives to achieve ongoing growth for the well known brand, including advertising, promotions, and the successful implementation of a new underwriting and claims management technology platform modelled on the Group’s Australian personal insurance platform. This will give us a competitive edge in pricing and customer segmentation and is a good example of sharing assets and capability across the Group.
We recently launched State EasyBiz, a package of commercial products for small retail and trade customers, tailored to simplify what can be a complicated process of finding the right business insurance.
With our focus on continuously improving our customer service, State has started to move some of its telephone activity to its regional network of sales centres across the country. This decentralisation has boosted employee engagement by allowing our people to work in their local communities. We also saw a positive result from the merger of our three Christchurch premises into one building, improving communication, team dynamics and workplace culture.
In our business partners area, through our relationship with local bank ASB, we introduced a new basic contents policy tailored to young renters and tertiary students to help protect their possessions.
We responded to a number of major claims events during the year, including severe flooding in the upper North Island in March and heavy snow storms in the South Island.
Our people are integral to the success and achievement of our business objectives. We were pleased our recent staff survey showed an improvement in our employees’ engagement score, which is now up 16% from the first measurement four years ago. This is particularly pleasing as New Zealand moves further into a tightening labour market.
LOOKING FORWARD
IAG’s New Zealand operation will build on improved customer advocacy across all its business channels to generate sustainable, profitable growth by:
- maximising the value of our brands by building on campaigns proven to yield results;
- leveraging our investment in leading-edge technologies and providing a seamless service for our customers;
- continuing to look at ways to meet customer needs, through innovative product development, such as bundling products and developing products that align with our sustainability position;
- ensuring we have an engaged and valued workforce, through initiatives such as taking a localised and flexible approach to meet the needs of our people wherever they are located; and
- building one of New Zealand’s first 5 Green Star rated buildings – meaning it achieves the highest standards in terms of environmentally sustainable design – as our flagship new corporate centre in Auckland.
UNDERSTANDING AND PRICING RISK
“ I LIKE THE WAY IAG UNDERSTANDS LONG-TERM RISK.”
State staff discuss the benefits of EasyBiz to small business owners in New Zealand.
Small businesses have a major role in powering the New Zealand economy. They employ an estimated 30% of all New Zealand workers, and accounted for about 60% of all new jobs in the five years to 2006.
So when a small business suffers an unexpected loss – such as damage from fire, storm, theft or vandalism – the impact on the community can be significant. And too often, a business’ recovery is delayed because it is underinsured, or does not have any insurance at all.
IAG’s direct insurer in New Zealand, State, has found that the complexities involved in choosing the most suitable insurance product may be contributing to underinsurance among small businesses.
That is why State has introduced EasyBiz, which demystifies and packages insurance cover for small retail and trade customers. It is designed to give them insurance cover that meets their essential needs, with an appropriate premium which neither overprices, nor underprices the cover.
We have drawn on our extensive underwriting experience to offer EasyBiz, which brings together a range of covers for a range of events targeted to small business owners.
EasyBiz is just one of the many risk management initiatives IAG’s businesses have introduced for customers. This demonstrates how we put our expert understanding of risk to use to help our customers minimise the risks they face. It also shows how we can put this knowledge to work to help ensure premiums are priced fairly and accurately.
