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As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations are facing new challenges that demand strategic positioning to gain a competitive edge, according to a technology-driven, knowledge and professional services institute, FITC Nigeria.
According to FITC, a company that provides learning, and advisory services to businesses, for companies to be more resilient and successful in the post-covid era, they would be required to adopt and implement game-changing initiatives, using the right tools and information, and setting strategic priorities for improved output and sustainable market dominance.
The Lagos-based company provided the tailored, strategy advisory support in revising and rethinking the organization’s strategic initiatives to align with new business realities and expectation at the recent Departmental Retreat by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM).
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FITC explained at the virtual event that the accelerated phase of change, conventional strategic thinking has not helped organisations plan for the next “new normal,” instead, it said the best answers have come from a hybrid approach: one that combines traditional business strategy with the latest thinking from behavioural sciences and innovation theories.
According to Chizor Malize, MD/CEO FITC, an organizational strategy must be resilient to external shocks and adaptable to changing circumstances. For her, agile strategic planning supported with agile systems, processes, and structures is now more important than ever.
Malize listed key trends reshaping, for example, the insurance industry in Nigeria that should be critical considerations for the insurance institutions in planning their strategy beyond 2021. The key trends dominating the insurance industry according to her, include the rise of Insurtech, hybrid distribution channels, compliance, and regulatory reforms as well as talent and demographic shifts.
Also on the list are remote working, mergers, and acquisitions, accelerated technology application, digital innovation and digitization, skills and talent shifts, innovative product development, changing customer preferences, virtual customer engagement, artificial intelligence, automation for claims processing as well as management.
These trends, Malize added, “will not only reshape the insurance industry but determine industry leaders going forward.”
She added that the COVID pandemic has ramped up the urgency of new competitive strategic imperatives and FITC has supported several financial and other institutions in either revising their strategic imperatives, developing these initiatives, charting out the implementation road map and supporting execution.
“A lot has changed in the Insurance sector, the pandemic has impacted travel insurance for instance, due to restrictions in movement especially for customers with additional covers against travel disruptions and in credit insurance as default rates rise. Besides, the profitability of insurers could decline due to falling in yields on fixed income instruments which constitute the bulk of insurers’ income” Malize noted.
According to FITC, the 2021 strategy retreat with the theme “Innovation, Distribution and Effective/efficient Service Delivery” became necessary given the negative impact of the pandemic on major insurance policies including business disruptions policies, health insurance, and events insurance.
