Volume 2 Issue 3 - 2009
Preparing Tomorrow's Leaders | Training Global Business Leaders | Compensation Storm

Preparing Tomorrow’s Leaders

How MSIG is Seizing Opportunities in the Midst of Asia’s Downturn

The business challenge

Formed in 2001 from the merger of Mitsui Marine & Fire Insurance Co. and Sumitomo Marine & Fire Insurance, MSIG Insurance has expanded rapidly on a global scale. With the acquisition of UK-based Aviva’s Asia general insurance business in 2004, MSIG became the second largest non-life insurance company in Southeast Asia. Now, MSIG aims to merge with Aioi Insurance and Nissay Dowa General Insurance by April 2010, which will make it the largest general insurance company in Japan and the fifth largest in the world.

MSIG sees a bright future for its business throughout Asia and is taking steps to prepare for that future. The company has ambitious goals and views its people as the key to its future success. The challenge it has is that the pool of talent for the insurance industry in Asia is quite shallow. So, while it has high ambitions and is in a leading market position, it has a limited external pool to choose from and finds it a challenge to continuously attract high-caliber people.

Solution

MSIG’s answer to this dilemma is to become an employer of choice. Its management in Southeast Asia has taken the lead by systematically putting in place a talent development program to identify the best talent from within and recruit the best talent from without, and then develop, retain and reward that talent. MSIG has turned to Aon Consulting for help with this program development.

Alan Wilson, Asia regional CEO for MSIG, explained why they chose Aon Consulting, “We did a beauty parade of consultants but we felt comfortable with Aon and with the people we were going to work with. Aon not only has an international presence but also a presence around Asia. They understand the cultural climates and the way things work in this region, which is a key to success. Working with Aon was a happy marriage of tapping into global best practice and also developing something that is appropriate for our business in this part of the world. For us, Aon stood out.”

The first step in the process was to develop a talent management strategy and framework. Rather than work from an “off-the-shelf” model, Aon consultants interviewed senior MSIG managers across the region and used the results to create a talent framework tailor-made for MSIG. The framework encompassed all key areas of talent management, including recruitment and selection, career development, performance management, leadership pipeline, reward management and manpower planning.

Using the talent framework as a guide, Aon Consultants worked with a core team of MSIG executives to develop a leadership pipeline process. The team began by developing behavioral interviews and 360-degree assessment tools based on the leadership framework. The interviews and assessments were then combined with psychometric testing in order to provide a complete profile of the talent.  The profile reports were then shared with the leadership candidates and used to develop individual performance and development plans.

According to Donovan Oliveiro, Aon Consulting’s lead consultant for this project, “Our priority was to always work in partnership. From the outset of the design phase we had a really good task force made up of HR leaders from MSIG’s operations in five countries. We went in with an open mind, we didn’t have a fixed solution, we listened to them and we took a solutioning approach when coming up with the competency framework. We partnered with MSIG so that the task force was a part of the solutions.” Goh Eng Kiat, Corporate Services Director of MSIG, had a similar view of the partnership with Aon, “Aon is quite willing to listen and at the same time willing to provide the necessary support and advice to the task force. Whenever there was a challenge or disagreement Aon helped the task force a lot to make a better decision.”

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Results

Alan Wilson commented on the results of the project by saying, “Our companies came together with different understanding and infrastructure in HR, with some being a bit more advanced than others. The good thing for me was that all of our key people in the businesses were coming onboard and operating on the same page. There are now fairly standardized procedures and an infrastructure in talent management around the region.”

“There was a tremendous amount of work but it was ‘happy’ work. The project was an opportunity to get closer to some of our key talents around the region. In terms of our business going forward, the project really helped cement our chances of business success. This program is key for us to ensure that we have the bench strength in all of the right places. Also it enables us to provide proper career paths and wider opportunities for our people beyond the particular markets in which they are located. We have put a lot of effort into learning and development programs for our people but we can structure that better now that we know what the gaps are. Many wins came out of this project.” 

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Challenges ahead

Despite the global financial crisis, MSIG’s leadership recruitment, assessment and development program is ongoing. According to Alan Wilson, “Because we are expanding and because of the challenge of needing talent, we don’t intend to make anyone redundant because we need everybody. Quite often for groups, one of the values of an acquisition is to be able to do the same business with less. For us, we are looking at the future. This is an area of the world where it is difficult to get people. Therefore, when we make an acquisition, we want to keep the people. We need the resources and their capabilities and capacities to expand the business.”

“In a way, the current economic climate makes it a bit easier for us. It is easier to retain staff since there are fewer attractions from competitors. So, if you are a company like us that is in pretty good shape, looks at things in the medium or long-term, and has ambitions to progress and to build up a talent pool, then there are actually more people available now than there was six months ago. That is true all the way through from CEO material down to people with skill sets in particular functional areas. It is a good time to recruit right now.” 

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Contact

For more information, please contact Na Boon Chong, Director, Consulting, Southeast Asia at boon_chong_na@aon-asia.com. 

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