Core activity and vision
Gjensidige’s core activity is to offer general insurance and risk-based accident and health insurance. We also offer services that naturally support our core activity, such as pension, banking and real estate agency services. We are also increasingly developing value-added additional services that increase our customers’ security and well-being. An ecosystem of products and services creates greater value for the customer, and gives us greater opportunity to defend our ‘ownership’ of the customer from niche companies.
Our vision is to know the customer best and care the most. This vision reflects our view that customer orientation is a competitive advantage. Real customer orientation requires a culture in which advisory services, sales, claims processing, product development and systems development form integral elements. It takes time to develop a culture like this, and it is difficult to copy. Good customer experiences have created a trust in our brand over time of intrinsic value, which we must maintain.
The competitive situation
We face competition from traditional general insurance companies and bank-assurance companies. We have seen a few attempts in recent years to establish non-traditional business models. The number of such initiatives is expected to increase going forward. New regulation and technology may usher in new business models that may challenge existing models.
Our response to such threats is to maintain and strengthen the close relationship we have with the customer by providing good customer orientation, and developing new solutions and, if necessary, new business models.
A sustainable company
Our activities shall contribute to a sustainable society by supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We shall achieve this by developing resource-
saving and sustainable processes and products, and by operating in an ethically responsible manner that upholds our reputation. Our sustainability work is described in more detail on page 22–49 of the sustainability report.
Best today, best tomorrow
Our most important priority in the short term is to improve the profitability of our existing activities. Sound profitability is a precondition for having the resources required to test, learn and develop, which, in turn, are necessary for maintaining competitiveness in the long term.
We will clarify financial accountability in the business segments, introduce a new IT core system and infrastructure and improve our price models. We are in the process of developing a new core system, and will implement it first in Denmark and Sweden, and then Norway. A new joint group core system will provide better opportunities for the business segments to share best practice, and develop new products and price models more quickly.
We will test new technologies and business opportunities ourselves to generate own experience and learning, so that we are equipped to assess disruptive threats and any opportunities that arise as a result.
Alliances will be an important precondition, in addition to structural initiatives, because ecosystems based on real-time behavioural data from multiple parties will become an increasingly important means of meeting customers’ needs.
the claim report automatically in just a few seconds. This creates good customer experiences, and is a very efficient means of cutting costs if it is done in a controlled manner. We will further develop such solutions, and use market-leading technology.
Insightful analysis
New technology and new customer behaviour, not least with respect to sharing data, creates increasingly better opportunities for ‘knowing the customer best’. We have a large customer base, and enjoy the trust of our customers. We will maintain this trust by collecting, processing and using data in a secure and structured manner, which enables us to develop increasingly relevant and user-friendly solutions for customers. By predicting customers’ needs more accurately, we can provide better advice in both staffed and self-service solutions. We will also develop pricing and tariff models based on data, technology and insight in order to ensure optimal risk selection and risk pricing at all times.
Dynamic organisational development
In order to be able to develop and apply technology that enables us to create good customer experiences, employees from different fields must have the right expertise and cooperate well. This makes great demands of the organisation and management. The management must have broad competence to be able to recognise opportunities, take the right initiatives and lead capable employees in a manner that generates value creation. Job rotation as a means of developing competence across business areas and staff entities is therefore, along with the recruitment and development of employees, an important strategic tool.
Strategy towards 2030
In the long term, we believe that access to real-time data generated by developing and participating in ecosystems is more important than all other relevant trends. We believe that this will become increasingly important in all our product areas, while the pace and focus will vary from area to area.
We will therefore facilitate participation in such systems, and actively seek national and international alliance partners who can strengthen our position. The right ecosystem design and the right alliance partners will enable us to attract more and better customers, offer more correct prises, reduce claims incurred and develop value-adding products and services that can generate increased profitability and loyalty.
Our strategic priorities towards 2022
We will maintain our strong and unique position, and improve profitability. We will adjust prices quickly to ensure they are adapted to claims inflation, while at the same time ensuring our competitiveness. We continuously work on major and minor rationalisation measures that generate cost savings and better customer experiences.
We will continue to improve profitability and growth in the markets outside Norway. Important measures in this context include a new IT core system, more sophisticated price models, rationalisation measures and organic growth.
Capital discipline will continue to be given high priority, and our capital strategy will support our attractive dividend policy and contribute to ensuring high and stable nominal dividends on a regular basis. We will continue to have a rational and disciplined approach to possibilities for mergers and acquisitions. We will free up capital in 2019 through the sale of Gjensidige Bank. We will spend the year exploring the structural opportunities available before, if applicable, returning excess capital to the owners.
Gjensidige’s position shall be further strengthened through the development of Gjensidige as a pan-Nordic general insurance player that is also taking its share of the growing accident and health insurance market. By complementing organic growth and contributing to the Group delivering on its strategic goals, acquisitions shall increase the value of the Group and its long-term dividend capacity.
Operational priorities
The Board has identified three operational priorities that are vital to the strategy succeeding in the short term and to laying the foundation for long-term development:
- Digital customer experiences
- Insightful analysis
- Dynamic organisational development
Digital customer experiences
It shall be easy to buy, own and use our products. This means that we must be able to increasingly offer digital customer experiences. The processing of claims is subject to particularly rapid change. When we enable customers to report a claim digitally, from a mobile phone for example, we can process the claim report automatically in just a few seconds. This creates good customer experiences, and is a very efficient means of cutting costs if it is done in a controlled manner. We will further develop such solutions, and use market-leading technology.
Insightful analysis
New technology and new customer behaviour, not least with respect to sharing data, creates increasingly better opportunities for ‘knowing the customer best’. We have a large customer base, and enjoy the trust of our customers. We will maintain this trust by collecting, processing and using data in a secure and structured manner, which enables us to develop increasingly relevant and user-friendly solutions for customers. By predicting customers’ needs more accurately, we can provide better advice in both staffed and self-service solutions. We will also develop pricing and tariff models based on data, technology and insight in order to ensure optimal risk selection and risk pricing at all times.
Dynamic organisational development
In order to be able to develop and apply technology that enables us to create good customer experiences, employees from different fields must have the right expertise and cooperate well. This makes great demands of the organisation and management. The management must have broad competence to be able to recognise opportunities, take the right initiatives and lead capable employees in a manner that generates value creation. Job rotation as a means of developing competence across business areas and staff entities is therefore, along with the recruitment and development of employees, an important strategic tool.
Strategy towards 2030
In the long term, we believe that access to real-time data generated by developing and participating in ecosystems is more important than all other relevant trends. We believe that this will become increasingly important in all our product areas, while the pace and focus will vary from area to area.
We will therefore facilitate participation in such systems, and actively seek national and international alliance partners who can strengthen our position. The right ecosystem design and the right alliance partners will enable us to attract more and better customers, offer more correct prises, reduce claims incurred and develop value-adding products and services that can generate increased profitability and loyalty.