“Leaders must rethink possibilities” Pankaj Arora, MD & CEO, Raheja QBE

In your opinion, what has the pandemic meant for leaders across industries? What has fundamentally changed for them?

COVID-19 pandemic is first a health and humanitarian crisis of our Era, and businesses have shown rapid and remarkable adjustments to the situation. Leaders prepared themselves for New Normal, which on one side is filled with Complexity and Uncertainty and on other has an ocean of opportunities. New business ideas have come to light and have been explored and succeeded. This crisis has forced Leaders to rethink the art of the possible, made them move from managing to enabling, how to harness full power of technology and purpose into action.

In enabling the stakeholders in this difficult times, it has been a big leap of faith for leaders and strong belief to hold and bounce back that has helped everyone sail through so far. In the world of Insurance, the digitisation has taken the front seat be it servicing the customers through multiple online, mobile friendly front end system to meetings which have all gone virtual. The Insurance Regulator has also come forward in relaxing the need for physical documentation which has helped Insurance companies to extend their uninterrupted services through online mode.

In terms of opportunities the leaders have been able to devote high mindshare in working through alternatives which enabled and helped customers and employees to run the business as usual. This has led to a small savings in cost in terms of travel expenditure, physical expansion which went on hold and such others.

Overall, it has been an exciting time for all in terms of managing and growing the business in this environment.

What are some of your boldest predictions for the industry over the next ten years?

Digitisation is not going back - Digital channels have flourished in past couple of years. Even more due to the new changes in current situation. People need everything at a click of button. Today the customers are more tech-savvy than ever. And to serve the market, organizations are adopting modern ways of doing business
Work From Home will continue - While pandemic was cursed for the radical change it brought to the way business operations were managed, businesses have not realised the cost effective and efficiency boosting capabilities of this model.

While the growth has slowed down due to the pandemic, businesses have found alternative ways of remaining afloat and growing from there. This will strengthen the overall scenario where high growth is eminent in times to come. Not to forget this difficult time has taught all of us in being efficient in using resources which shall further lead to cost efficiency to help business grow stronger.

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