A step back in time - when my insurance journey began

The eve of the Paris Olympic Games has made me pause and reflect on my career in insurance, which began during the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.

What have I learned?

I started my career in CTP claims at NRMA Insurance, which at the time had a 1.8% share of the NSW CTP market. It was a great learning experience about insurance litigation but also a humbling one. Soon after I joined, the NSW Government announced that GIO would become the sole CTP insurer, making me wonder how long my job would last. If there was cause for alarm, my bosses showed no sign of it.

Lesson No 1 – Be resilient in the face of uncertainty and change.

Fast forward to 1988 and my boss Neville King was appointed to a Committee to review motor accident compensation in NSW and my role was to assist him. On 1 July 1989, NRMA Insurance was allocated a 35% market share in CTP. I was part of the core team that had the opportunity of a lifetime to establish a new department, as well as establish industry-wide claims processes, including the Sharing Agreement and hospital bulk billing arrangements.

However, with it came risks.

I will never forget the morning of 22 December 1989. News came in about a tragic road accident at Kempsey NSW, resulting in the loss of 35 lives. I was authorised to fly to Kempsey to offer immediate financial assistance to those injured and to their families. Although NRMA was not the insurer of the at-fault driver, the NRMA leadership placed the care and concern for accident victims above legal liability and due process. The true heart of a caring organisation was plain for all to see.

Lesson No 2 – Like life, insurance is about balancing opportunities and risks, but it is also important to remember purpose.

The 1990s was period of upheaval and change across the nation and the globe. NRMA and NRMA insurance was facing a number of governance challenges. Privatisation was a recurring theme.

In 1994, I was a member of the core team that worked on the first attempt at demutualisation, which was sadly ended by court proceedings in late 1994. NRMA Insurance did demutualise in 2000, but it was a different organisation by then.

The upheaval at the time was all part of growing pains, with the millennium nearing and impact of technological change. I was slow to recognise that and it cost me, in career terms.

Lesson No 3 – Learn to renew your mind, as it is the only way to grow and to move with the times.

International expansion was my next venture. I joined the International Business team led by Graeme Adams and I was involved in NRMA Insurance's first acquisition overseas.

Following the public listing of NRMA Insurance Group, the focus turned to local opportunities. Other notable and influential events of the time were the HIH collapse, the advent of APRA and Financial Services Reform.

My boss, Ian Brown, appointed me to develop a business case to enter the builders warranty market, which was approved by the Board. I launched CGU Home Warranty Insurance in 2004. Never was there a more hated product but it was vital to the residential building industry. Home warranty was my universe for 5 years, before legislative changes made it unworkable as a privately underwritten market.

On a positive note, I learnt all about commercial underwriting and about the brokers gravy train.

Lesson No 4 – remember Lesson No 1!

By 2012, I had had enough. Being of Indian origin, I was fascinated by the onset of migration from the subcontinent to Australia. When our family migrated to Australia in 1971, we were a rarity. The White Australia had only recently been abolished, but I am fortunate to say we experienced very little racism growing up. My father found it more difficult, and had work at a law firm in Alice Springs in 1972. My mum was the first Asian teacher at Baulkham Hills High School in 1971, so much so there was a public assembly to welcome her to the school!

I wondered if there was an opportunity to run a ‘finishing school’ in Australia for new migrants, to help them settle in and assimilate. However, reality (ie my wife and a mortgage) quickly set in and I opted instead for a career in insurance consulting, which has been very challenging but also rewarding in many ways.

Lesson No 5 – you are never too old to learn and keep reinventing yourself.

As I look back over forty years, I consider myself to be very blessed. I am biased, but we live in the best city (Sydney) and country in the world. At work, I am surrounded by an incredibly smart and collegiate group of people, young and young at heart. We work for clients who demand excellence but who also engage with us as trusted advisors.

I am also fortunate to have crossed paths with and learned from inspirational leaders, people who combine vision, purpose and passion but who are also generous in imparting knowledge and wisdom. Notable among them are the late John Lamble, Neville King, Ian Brown, Tom Brennan and Graeme Adams.

Who would have thought a career in insurance would be so rewarding and enlightening!