Driving operational excellence in Asia Pacific

Markel International, London

Umesh Sharma, operations manager for Markel Asia, explains why engagement, efficiency, and customer focus are the three core elements for driving operational excellence in the organisation and wider insurance industry.

Five months ago, I joined Markel to establish and drive operational excellence for a newly set-up shared services team in Mumbai. So far, the journey has been exciting for our team as we continue providing a first-class service to clients across the region, while supporting our offices in Dubai, Mumbai, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore. 

Not a day goes by without us asking ourselves how things can be done better – for me, this is the best definition of operational excellence. In a short span of time, we have created an Operational Excellence model and steadfastly moved everyone along this journey with us. Under the new model, each team member can clearly see the value of their work, obtain guidance from experienced team members, and seek clarity for improving the quality of their work in a timely and professional manner. With honest feedback and a newly instituted rewards programme, team members are optimally motivated to do their best and bring out their full potential. 

Our credit controllers are encouraged to call up their broking contacts in accounting and settlement functions to establish a greater rapport with them to drive further engagement across the board. We also have metrics in place to monitor the speed of bringing cash into our organisation for improved efficiency. This, in turn, provides useful information to the underwriters on missing additional premiums and the collection status by broker. 

That emphasis on engagement, efficiency, and customer focus is the core of our operational excellence programme. In my 12 years of working in operations, I feel that operational excellence requires a change of mindset within the organisation itself. I often encourage team members to rethink the current approach and draw up improvements to the internal operational systems and processes. Recently, we implemented straight-through payment processing, which means 90% of time is saved, compared to the old process of filling up and archiving forms. 

Operational excellence is not an idealised and intangible view of business reality. Any business, in seeking operational excellence, must have a business-oriented view and quantified targets because the process requires a high level of investment over time from all members of staff. This increasingly involves process (re)design, integrating new technologies, and broadening the company’s offering to create more value for clients.

We can anticipate more positive changes being introduced in the near future, to deliver the operational excellence that we should aspire to provide as a specialist insurer.

About Markel International:

Markel International is a division of Markel Group Inc, a US-based holding company trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: MKL). Markel International writes insurance and reinsurance business through six divisions and through offices across the UK, Europe, Canada, Latin America and Asia Pacific. Markel International’s insuring entities include Syndicate 3000, Markel International Insurance Company Limited, Markel Insurance SE., and Markel Resseguradora do Brasil S.A. Its UK national markets business also provides legal and professional fees insurance cover as well as legal and tax consultancy services.