RSA’s commercial boss declares his ongoing support for brokers in a challenging market

Another year, another Biba. From London’s wind-swept ExCeL to wind-blown Manchester Central. Around 4,000 are expected to be there, all jostling, networking and pushing hard, with the reward of maybe some business and at least a drink or two at the end of the day.

With a conference theme of ‘Opportunities in adversity’, I’m sure we’ll learn a few things about having the right mind-set from Lord Sugar and Amazon trekker Ed Stafford. But the conference title hits the nail on the head. Times have been tough, but there is business to be had. Good, strong solid business. This is no time for wimps or a slack attitude.

We at the RSA have been rolling up our sleeves. We’re committed to helping brokers achieve strong business to the benefit of us both. Our commitment to brokers hasn’t waned; it increases year on year. Without brokers, we wouldn’t be the business we are today.

Strengthening broker links

So our priority remains making it easy for brokers to do business with us. In the past few years we’ve restructured our business to align it with our broker partners. We’re also more than fully aware of our regional obligations and we ensure our teams in Belfast, Glasgow, Cardiff, Bristol, Leeds, Birmingham, Ipswich and, of course, Manchester are experienced and empowered to do deals.

For SMEs, our product offering is the best it’s ever been. Over the past two years we have invested in our proposition, launching a range of small business products on RSA online and on industry broker platforms, as well as launching our personal support offering ePromise and getting our e-traders to train brokers on our products.

Keeping promises

Within commercial, we pushed our Broker Promise to mid-market. And we mean it – we make and keep our promises to our chosen brokers to provide them with a level of service ahead of the competition.

In global, we’re playing to our strengths in specialty lines and pushing our teams hard to service brokers. This has led to good results in marine and risk solutions. Maximising on our service proposition here is just as important. We also see opportunities in our power and engineering business, particularly renewable energy, and remain at the forefront in Risk Solutions UK, driven by casualty and international property portfolios.

We’re going to do more and more. Because a strong broker means a strong RSA. So we’re going to do what we say we’re going to do, when we say we’ll do it, every time. Look forward to seeing you there. I hope you’ll pop by our stand C24 so we can tell you more.

Paul Donaldson is RSA UK commercial managing director.