Tactical Partnerships Form A Key Pillar Of Our Growth Strategy: Alok Rungta, Future Generali India Life Insurance

As the insurance industry undergoes rapid transformation driven by technological advancements and innovative startups, Future Generali India Life Insurance has remained focused on staying ahead of the curve by forging strategic alliances, promoting responsible business practices, and investing in emerging technologies. In an exclusive interview with Alok Rungta, the Deputy CEO and Chief Financial Officer of Future Generali India Life Insurance, we delve into the strategies and insights of the company and learn about its approach to thriving in an ever-evolving insurance market.

The insurance industry is experiencing a significant transformation due to the emergence of InsurTech startups and digital innovations. So, how does Future Generali plan to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving insurance market?

In a bid to drive increased personalisation and provide engaging experiences for our customers, we at Future Generali India Life Insurance have been augmenting our InsurTech capabilities over the past few years. Our endeavour has been to transform into a digitally enabled organisation, with a keen focus on embracing digital technologies to enhance our back-end systems, improve customer servicing, streamline online and offline distribution channels and strengthen online customer acquisition. That said, we have adopted a structured approach in this digital transformation journey, centering all our initiatives around key trends and customer behavioural insights that continue to be unlocked by processing large volumes of internal data. We believe that digital adoption when combined with a sustained customer focus, will support our growth story and support business transformation in the ever-evolving life insurance space.

Partnerships and collaborations have become key drivers of growth in the BFSI sector. What is Future Generali's vision for forming strategic alliances and how do you see these partnerships shaping the company's financial outlook?

In today’s competitive business landscape, it is important to drive forward strategic plans and deliver long-term value creation for our stakeholders, be it our customers, distributors, employees and investors. At Future Generali India Life Insurance, we have been forming strategic alliances with leading tech companies like Google and Microsoft to build an agile organisation that utilises emerging technologies in a meaningful manner. We believe that such tactical partnerships form a key pillar of our growth strategy and continue to explore opportunities to associate with quality partners that can supplement our internal capabilities. Obviously, the aim behind is to drive continuous improvements, facilitate innovation and boost our revenue streams with such alliances in the longer term.  

As the CFO, how do you plan to identify and mitigate potential risks and ensure Future Generali's financial stability and resilience in the face of changing market dynamics?

The insurance sector works to provide financial risk mitigation for its customers and therefore identifying and mitigating external or internal risks is crucial for any life insurer player today. At Future Generali India Life Insurance, we have an internal control and risk management system that comprises of rules, procedures, and internal structures that has supported us in identifying, evaluating, measuring, managing, and monitoring key business risks efficiently. Additionally, forward-looking risks that could arise from business activities or regulatory changes are also catered to, ensuring that the company’s solvency needs can be met at all times. In fact, we have built multiple lines of defences that are catered to by different functions within the organisation, providing a buffer against financial, credit, operational, insurance, sustainability, and any other emerging risks. This well-defined and proactive enterprise risk management philosophy remains key to our financial strength and imparts the hardiness needed to succeed in a VUCA world. 

With the increasing focus on ESG factors, how do you plan to align Future Generali's financial practices with responsible and ethical business practices to create a positive impact on society?

Our vision of playing a leading role in improving people’s lives through insurance inspires us to shape a more sustainable future for our customers and society in general. Our life insurance products are aimed at supporting and fostering social inclusion, with a focus on promoting responsible lifestyles and preventive healthcare for our policyholders. We remain committed to integrating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations in our core business, filtering our investments, underwriting practicesand other business operations according to stringent internal sustainability criteria. We have also been developing and promoting insurance solutions that have ESG components, with an inter-functional working group established within the organisation to assess the adequacy of our ESG initiatives. At Future Generali India Life Insurance, we believe that sustainability is the only way to approach business and are dedicated to shaping a safer and more sustainable future.

Could you share insights into Future Generali's strategy for investing in emerging technologies that have the potential to revolutionise the insurance industry?

While there is a lot of buzz around emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT) among a few others, we have refrained from implementing blanket solutions in our operations. Instead, we are constantly working towards automating the entire customer relationship management and adopting smart automation solutions across our business, to simplify and enhance the end-user experience. As a result of this innovation and technology focus, we have integrated 24x7 service and advisory support, introduced cloud-native solutions for customer and distribution-facing functions, and are building future-ready business models that are centred around scaling automation. In this transformative journey, we continue to explore partnerships with congruent entities and remain committed to investing in disruptive technologies that can pioneer innovation. 

Customer experience is a crucial aspect of the insurance business. How do you plan to use data analytics and customer insights to enhance Future Generali's offerings and create personalised insurance solutions for customers?

We are a data-driven company that prioritises our customer feedback and strives to exceed their expectations through effective insurance solutions. Towards this end, we have a dedicated business intelligence team that churns voluminous chunks of data on a real-time basis, converting them into key customer insights that are used to guide our operations. In fact, our suite of differentiated life insurance solutions cater to diverse customer groups and has been curated to offer a highly personalised service experience while meeting their differentiated needs.