Jan 2006 Financial News

GHL raises stakes with insurance jefes

Jan 19, 2006

Guardian General, a subsidiary of Guardian Holdings Limited (GHL), has put together a high-powered team of insurance executives to find ways to help the company stay ahead in the global arena.

The Business Transformation Unit (BTU) of Guardian has been put together to push the company’s strategic plan. The BTU, the brainchild of GHL Group Executive Director, Terrence Farrell, has identified four high-performance managers to be part of this radical move: Maureen de Gannes and Dean Romany of Trinidad and Tobago, Glyne Pilgrim of Barbados and Raymond Ho of the United Kingdom and Pat Lau, Executive Assistant.

"We did not identify individuals based on departments," said Farrell, noting that selection was based on "interaction and experience with these people."

This small, tight team has been charged with tackling issues in Guardian Insurance Limited (GGIL) and in Guardian General Insurance Limited (GGIL). While GIL’s focus is on its frontline and its processes, GGIL has targeted claims management, broker relationships and administrative expenses, said the company’s newsletter, Star, in its latest publication.

"While the projects are somewhat different, in both cases the BTU is looking at business processes and comparing existing processes with the best practices so as to close the gap between where we are and where we want to be. Ultimately, the aim is for sustained transformation, which can only come with continuous improvement," said Farrell. Farrell said BTU must marry the need for continued improvement with the need for leadership development. "Given where GHL needs to go globally, the senior executive team acknowledged that we did not have the quantity and quality of executive talent to take us there. While we do need to bring in executives from outside the organisation and outside of the region, we also need to develop from the inside and raise the level of executive talent in the organisation."

In conceptualising the BTU, he said, the selected individuals were given meaningful projects to work on. Dr Farrell emphasised the BTU team has been given a lot of latitude to perform their tasks and that training has to be truly effective.

Additionally, they must undertake the NTL Human Interaction Lab, a programme that forces you to see how you come across to other people. "Effective executives must be able to deal and interact with each other on areas and dimensions that have nothing to do with the insurance industry or the business," he said.

Newsday
Business Day
Thursday, 19th January, 2006.
http://www.newsday.co.tt/business.php