Helping an ambitious new business division reach its goals

The challenge

A well-established marine insurer had recently set up a new specialty insurance division and planned to grow it quickly. The new division had restructured, created a strategic leadership team and had a large number of projects to deliver. These included a major Policy Administration System (PAS) implementation plus a range of other technology, regulatory and business process change projects.

The group transformation and technology team were providing resources and strategic input for the new division. But it needed a transformation function that truly understood both its market and the technologies and processes required. Over to us.

There were two key challenges: firstly, finding people with specialist experience at the right level, and secondly, finding them fast. The major PAS programme was neither on time nor on budget. Someone had to take the reins quickly.

The solution

We swiftly came up with a two-pronged approach. Find an interim leader for the PAS programme plus additional supporting interim resources. And develop a new, permanent transformation function that could drive a range of business and technology projects and partner with group services when needed.

First we placed an interim Programme Director who’d just finished implementing the same system for another insurer. They were able to steady the programme by partnering with business leaders, implementing new governance and giving expert guidance to others. We followed this up by placing the extra interim support the project needed.

At the same time, we worked on permanent roles. We found an experienced Change Director from a direct competitor who had already built a function from scratch. We supported them with two Project Managers and two Business Analysts.

The impact

The PAS programme, which was the most immediate challenge, was successfully delivered. Longer-term, we helped the division develop a dynamic, knowledgeable transformation function. The team here boasted strong, specialist experience plus the bandwidth to deliver a broad portfolio of projects.

Most importantly, the newly established business division could grow at pace thanks to people, systems and processes able to support that growth.