Aviva’s new chief must embrace digital era

Aviva UK general insurance (GI) has had a tumultuous 2013. There have been office closures, high-profile senior management departures, bonus freezes and now the exit of UK GI chief executive Robin Spencer. That’s the fifth chief executive to leave in seven years. You’d have thought all the changes would have a negative effect, but our survey of some of Aviva’s key brokers tells a different story. They aren’t worried about the office closures, have confidence in the management and feel they receive the right level of contact. That’s all good.

What may concern Aviva is brokers say they’re trading less with the insurer than a year ago. Perhaps that’s partly because of a decision by Aviva to scale back to maintain underwriting profitability.

So where does new chief executive Maurice Tulloch go from here with the brokers? The key for him, and indeed his rivals, will be increased digitisation of trading combined with staff who understand their markets.

This means brokers may not need as much face-to-face contact as in the past, but they do want reliable and well-briefed points of contact. And in this day and age of digitally available data, there is no excuse for not having exactly that.

• Insurance Times and its sister brands have won the B2B digital publisher of the year award. The prestigious award from the Professional Publisher Association praised the brands’ digital strategy, which pushed up digital revenues 32% last year. Managing director Tim Whitehouse said: “I am delighted we have won this blue riband trophy and for my colleagues, who should feel very proud of their achievement.”