The company also boasts of possessing asset to a tune of Rs 10.79 billion -- the highest among all insurers, client base far exceeding any other companies and holding biggest market share in the industry. [break]
But records of the company shows that it is fast losing business in the general insurance sector and its rate of growth of life insurance business too has slackened over the past half decade. The company has barely expanded its presence and still worse, people in the market barely know its strength and benefits of being its clients.
“How will the people know about the company and its products when it is barely visible in the market?” wondered Binod Aryal, newly appointed chief administrator of the state-owned insurer.
But the company is soon going to break its legacy and aggressively make its presence felt in the advertisement media. “We are currently working on a number of reforms in the organization. Once done, people will soon start seeing RBS in newspapers, hoarding boards and television screens,” said Aryal.
The company is also adding new branches in Birgunj, Bhairahawa and Biratnagar within a month to deepen its life insurance business outside the Kathmandu Valley. It is also opening a liaison office at the Department of Foreign Employment to cater to the migrant workers and tap the foreign employment potentials. It is also re-orienting the existing branches, making them look more consumer-friendly and attractive.
“Service is what we deal on. Until we convince consumers that we really care about them, no marketing effort can generate sustainable business,” said Aryal. He further added that RBS will soon establish strategic business ties with commercial banks -- both public and private sector banks -- to sell its products, collect premium, and settle claims. “We are talking with banks with wider branch network, so that our clients in different parts of the country can easily pay their premium through local bank branches,” said Aryal.
RBS has already outsourced its premium collection job at its central office to Agricultural Development Bank. Under this, ADB staffs are presently collecting premium at RBS central office. The office generates an average of Rs 5 million in premium every day.
The next reform that Aryal is working on is making the state-owned insurer information technology (IT) friendly in order to speed up collections, settle claims and monitor business on day to day basis.
However, how fast these plans materialize depends on how rapidly can the company recruit new staffs, upgrade the existing ones, and institutionalize functional human resource planning with reward and punishment.
RBS has not recruited staffs since 1988. This has left it almost devoid of competent and experienced employees. To deal with this gap, it recently hired 30 staffs on a contract basis and is also in-taking 26 new staffs.
“If things went smoothly, I will raise the market share of RBS life insurance business to 70 percent from existing 40 percent within two years,” Aryal claimed.
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