Starting with a clean slate

The fact that this interview was delayed by four and a half hours offers an insight into the routine of Amanda Blanc. Originally scheduled for 3 June, two months in advance, the interview date turned out to be the day UK air-traffic control wobbled - leaving Blanc stranded in Manchester, where she lives and commutes from most days of the week. After this mammoth commute, Blanc is then out on the road meeting seven or eight clients each week - a fact that demonstrates her hands-on approach.

But, despite having one of the most arduous schedules in the business, Blanc is clearly relishing her new role at Groupama as distribution and customer services director. "We have got a young team (of account managers) that aren't inhibited by the company's history and they want to get out there and tell brokers about the new Groupama and the benefits it can deliver."

Blanc concedes the challenge of 'starting with a clean slate' was one of the main attractions of the newly created role, developed when Groupama merged the sales and distribution director and underwriting and operations director roles. She says: "While the objectives of a distribution director and a customer services director are different, this adds days to decision-making and managing director Francois-Xavier Boisseau merged these roles to improve efficiency." She adds that this is something that could work well for larger insurers but that there are entrenched attitudes preventing it. "I hate the term 'back office'; underwriting and administration are all part of the process," she states.

Blanc says that another attractive feature of the challenge was Groupama's size, adding: "Big insurers are bureaucratic and, therefore, take longer to respond to brokers. It is inevitable as companies get larger, but brokers are now starting to experience some of this as they too get bigger."

Strategy for the channel, by which insurer deals with broker, has been largely devised by Blanc, who is keen to stress the varied means of support now offered to brokers. "The way the team has been segmented is to cater for the different levels of support required by brokers. For example, some require a full human resources, compliance and marketing package, while others need very little support. I remember one broker asking me years ago 'will I be as valuable as a customer as I am when I am a prospective customer?', which reflects the poor experience brokers have had with insurers over the years. My aim is to not let brokers down."

She continues: "There were various aspects of the role that attracted me and provided a compelling reason to move when I did. These include seeing an organisation that was ready to start again, with people for whom I have great respect. The challenge Groupama has embarked upon is ideal as I am not a maintainer, I am a developer."

Concerning the fact that other insurers have also recently been increasingly vocal in their support of brokers - and the collective effect this may have on direct players - Blanc says: "Insurers sometimes speak with a 'forked tongue'. My challenge to them would be to put their money where their mouth is. Brokers need to be involved in providing insurance to businesses and they offer much more than products to small to medium-sized enterprise customers.

"While research shows that direct players are likely to attract SME business, I think there is an element of some insurers hearing what they want to hear. Why would brokers allow their customer base to defect to the direct market? Survey questions are posed in such a way as to elicit a certain response; the real question is would clients be getting good value? SMEs accustomed to telephoning their local broker for advice would find themselves running into difficulty if they wanted to enquire if their sums-insured value was correct from a call-centre operator in Glasgow.

"Insurers have convinced brokers that SME business per se is not worth it, but brokers can use IT and initiatives such as imarket to make the process slicker and more efficient. Insurers can also take away some of the pressures on broker dealings with SMEs, also through IT, and by generally being more efficient."

Furthermore, Blanc says that, while she thinks there will be growth in the take-up of direct commercial products, and what she calls quasi-direct players such as banks, her view is that this will not be significant.

IT challenge

Concerning IT issues, Blanc is, not surprisingly, bullish about Groupama's capabilities, following a £20m injection to bring its operations onto a single common platform. She continues: "My challenge to the market, and particularly insurers, is that e-commerce is an effective way of doing business that the industry needs to get on with. The imarket initiative needs other insurers on board and the industry needs to act as one. It is time to stop taking a wait-and-see approach because this turns into waiting for it not to happen. Insurers' pessimism and apathy will make this a self-fulfilling prophecy."

She also argues that insurers have a duty to respond to broker and customer demands for increased efficiency, adding: "Questions are being asked about why the industry is so fragmented in its approach to delivering the efficiencies that IT has to offer."

She continues: "Gone are the days when under-writers had to leaf through thick ratings guides; technology has changed that. We have issued thousands of policies without touching them as in some classes this can be automated. This has taken out cost and reduced the error rate."

While many wait with bated breath to see how much the market will soften, after a slowing in rate increases and comparatively modest profits from insurers in the first quarter, Blanc notes this as a point of concern: "We (insurers) have got to hold our nerve as extreme fluctuations are bad for everyone. There is the potential for further softening; fleet motor is an example of one such area, although it is benign, having plateaued at the moment. It is in our interest to protect the people that work for us by ensuring the company is profitable for us and the parent company.

We do not write for the top line and we do not need volume. It is an irony that people also want to work for a growing business and we have to take a balanced view. However, insurers need to keep writing for profit at the moment."

Concerning factors that may potentially upset this, she adds: "We have a centralised operation, which gives us greater control than an insurer that is more spread out geographically. With insurers like this, one maverick underwriter can cause a lot of problems as rates become inconsistent."

Solid credentials

Having graduated in 1989, Blanc went on to become a fleet and casualty underwriter, then an area development manager and was the first female - and the youngest ever - Commercial Union branch manager. Looking back, Blanc says without hesitation that being a woman did not inhibit her progress.

She explains: "CU was very successful and very forward-thinking and the culture was all about giving people a chance. At the time, CU ran a 'Best Place to Work' programme, through which I was encouraged to undertake a Master of Business Administration degree, which really opened my eyes. I realised there are ways of managing people, keeping them happy and motivated, but still have a profitable company."

Blanc is, not surprisingly, a staunch advocate of encouraging staff to undertake MBA programmes, which can bring significant value to insurance firms. She explains: "An MBA exposes employees to people from other businesses and, through this, insurers and brokers can learn a lot - such as how other businesses reward and market people and how businesses are structured, among many other things."

Blanc also recalls the holistic training that was available at CU to postgraduates. This attracted, on average, six graduates a year to each of its branches who then embarked on a training programme that offered experience in all facets of the business from issuing policies to handling claims.

She adds: "Despite the popular perception, the fact that I am a woman has made no difference to my progress," a fact that her current role would tend to support. "There was the experience of visiting a broker in Grimsby once who mistook me for the account manager's personal assistant, which was just funny at the time."

She continues: "I would say that most brokers are open-minded and respect the fact that you can do your job, rather than who you are. I know the industry has been criticised for being like a boys' club, but professionalism is appreciated and goes a long way. After all, people are in business to make money, not grind the axe."

Blanc considers that insurance has an undeserved reputation when it comes to opportunities for women. She considers that this merely reflects the progress that is under way in wider society.

Using Groupama as an example, Blanc also mentions operations manager Ann Beswick, head of intermediary solutions Kate Mutter and the recently departed underwriting and pricing director Maggie Litster as proof of women rising in insurance. "You don't have to become one of the boys to be successful in insurance," she states. "Look at the young achievers at the awards ceremonies - women have not been lacking there and I don't believe it is merely positive discrimination. It is true there are less women in broking, but there are proportionally more working for insurers now than ever. If you look at the statistics, many women in insurance are found more in call centres or administration, and I know there is much talk about what the industry can do to attract women, but women have also got to want to do it for themselves," she says, adding: "Unintentionally, my team comprises equal numbers of men and women."

Retention not recruitment

Blanc also considers there to be an overemphasis on attracting skilled staff, arguing that investment in existing staff is overlooked. "Some companies - insurers and brokers alike - spend a lot of money attracting new people but simultaneously lose staff because of a lack of investment in them personally and professionally. I am determined to keep the people I have and I think there is room for more of that attitude in insurance."

Blanc's strong beliefs about the treatment of staff issues are well served at Groupama, which prides itself on recruiting and retaining staff through promoting core values at the heart of the company. Blanc explains: "There are four key values: challenge, in that voicing reservations is a positive thing and is encouraged; teamwork; integrity; and professionalism.

"Because it is not just what you say, it is what you do," she exclaims, adding: "It is becoming trendy for firms to promote values but staff quickly learn if it's a gimmick. Some firms have recognised the worth of selling values and spend a small fortune on consultants who invent value concepts. But values are not a cosmetic add-on, they must reflect what the company is about and what is valuable to it."

She also adds: "There are many ways of retaining staff; I like setting clear and managed performance objectives and encouraging people to undertake projects can bring value to the business and provide a stimulating environment in which staff can use and develop their skills."

Blanc's brief spell at Ernst and Young after CU underlined her strong orientation towards people, both customers and staff. She says: "I really missed the people side during this period - particularly being in front of the customer.

"We have spent a lot of time investing in people recently and, when things are done properly, it can also be a lot of fun being part of, and watching people develop."

CV

2003: Distribution and customer service director, Groupama

1999: Regional director, Axa

1998: Senior management consultant, Ernst & Young

1998: Regional manager, Commercial Union Nottingham, Newcastle, Belfast and Leicester

1997: Branch manager, CU Leicester

1995: Trading manager, CU Leeds

1989: CU graduate trainee.