Branch Manager - Agency - Gurgaon

About the Health Insurance Industry –

While the current market sees more than 15 non-life players in the private space and 5 exclusive private players in the health insurance space trying to capture a sizable market share, the nationalised service provider (6) remains a strong competitor. In addition to this the business dynamics are such that the overall market on an annual basis which is to the tune of roughly 10,000 Crs sees close to 85 % of the business renewing with the existing service provider itself. This narrows down the opportunity of the fresh business actually being seriously fought in the market to approximately 1500 odd Crs. With the SME and the start-ups being the driving force of Indian economy, the opportunity to cater to these segments is immense and is increasing manifold year on year. The challenge here therefore remains as to how we capture a larger share of the opportunity by developing specific solutions to cater each segment of the business. Also by creating an inexpensive and standardized solution to increase the reach into the pockets of channel partners across the country to harness on their captive business and explore new opportunities with them.

Market Opportunities – With the advent of medical advancements, lifestyle changes, change in Indian socio-economic scenario and Indian healthcare space, and the insurers are facing challenges to cater to the needs of this diverse clientele. Increasingly Indian customers have started considering health insurance partners as ententions of health advisers. In this scenario it becomes extremely important to understand their psyche and then provide tailored solutions with wellness benefits which would help them meet their end objectives and bring in profitable revenue source for the company.

About the Aditya Birla Health Insurance –

Aditya Birla Health Insurance Co. Limited (ABHICL) was incorporated in 2015 as a 51:49 joint venture between Aditya Birla Capital Limited (ABCL) and MMI Strategic Investments (Pty) Ltd. ABHICL commenced its operations in October 2016.

ABHICL has entered the competitive health insurance market with an aim to expand the category to wider customer segments, beyond the ones that health insurance companies traditionally have marketed to. As the 6^th entrant in a category with well-established players, ABHICL is creating differentiation and equity for itself though the unique business proposition of “Health Insurance for All”, a one of a kind proposition in India at the moment. This is a philosophy that is being built through every single consumer touch point and into every single backend process of the company to ensure a customer’s experience of our proposition is continuous and seamless.

ABHI’s unique offering to market includes proposition includes -

• A Comprehensive Incentivized Wellness Program that will attract the young and health conscious and will motivate, guide and reward them to stay healthy
• A Chronic Care Management Program to cater to the unmet needs of a growing Indian population of those suffering from chronic lifestyle conditions like Diabetes, Asthma, High Cholesterol and Hypertension from Day 1
• ABHICL serves as an enabler and influencer of health and healthcare choices that customers make, in addition to being a payer of healthcare expenses. Thus, ABHICL would act like a much needed catalyst to grow the prevalent health insurance landscape in India through product innovations and a wider choice of consumer relevant products.
• ABHICL’s vision has always been digital. The company has been successful in adopting paper-less approach right from identifying to on-boarding to delivering seamless experience of its customers & employees.

Challenges –

Distribution reach will be the key to future growth acceleration for insurance companies as existing geographies get saturated and the focus shifts to new under penetrated geographies.

Effective distribution reach into newer geographies, alternate distribution channels, innovative products, targeting new segments are the major challenges in this industry and will be the key drivers in the future. 

While companies are planning to double their agency network over the next 2 years, the overall industry life agency workforce attrition rate ranges between 50-55% which is significantly high.

Hence the key challenge to recruit qualified insurance agents, especially in the semi-urban / rural markets and also to combat the increasing attrition rate particularly when new players are entering the market

Distribution: How we create specific distribution models to penetrate different market segments remains a challenge. Motivation to channel partners to place business with the co. Activate and manage agent based distribution channel across the country

Long term and short term strategic plans to increase the market share and profitability in line with the company’s business objectives. 

Identifying new segments, structure offerings, and value enhancers apart from creating differentiators’ remains a big challenge for the company’s growth. Meeting varied client’s expectation in terms of solutions, pricing and operational support remains a challenge.

Build and further enhance relationships with key customers and agents alike.

Build the vertical in line with the leadership teams expectation of having the group benefits team contributing substantially to the bottom-line in years to come

Key Challenges for the role –

• As the business is quite manpower intensive, hiring & retaining the right resources given the limited availability of quality talent and stiff competition is a stiff challenge
• Delay in completion of business during month end as it involves the long process to issue the policy (starting from policy receipting, scanning, completing requirement, medical follow ups and finally the completion).
• Since health business is purely retail, maintaining daily rhythms and adding value every day to engage FLS/advisors so that they do required inputs as per the sales process is a challenge.
• Considering FLS quality and delivery timelines, coaching, handholding and developing a new FLS takes lot of time and energy.
• Infrastructure constraints
• Driving a balanced business growth in order to achieve the sales goals in alignment with mandated/desired market conduct and quality of business.  
• Recurrent changes in regulatory environment and consequently changed product portfolios requiring strategic & tactical changes in selling techniques/pitch 
• Managing expectations of high performers: high performers expectation rises every year and to satisfy it, by getting innovative ideas is a biggest challenge 
• Driving high rates of YOY renewals in turbulent market conditions