Graham Spittles , managing director of Otter Risk Solutions, talks to Johanna Gornitzki about his business, the industry and his future aspirations
"People have to got realise that they don't have to be customer focused," says Graham Spittles, managing director of Otter Risk Solutions (ORS). "They have to be customer obsessed."
And with four decades of industry experience under his belt, Spittles is well placed to understand the needs of both the customer and the industry.
"Throughout 40 years you get to know a lot of people and build up a great deal of trust and relationships," he says.
"You also know what issues are affecting life companies, and last but not least, you know what the industry is looking for."
Spittles first became acquainted with the world of insurance in the mid-60s when he secured a job as an underwriter for Reliance Mutual.
Since then, he has had various roles within the industry. He was the chairman of the Association of British Insurer's Life Assurance and Medical Affairs Committee from 1998-2003 and also chaired the ABI Life and Health Regulation working group, which looked at issues such as HIV/AIDS best practice.
His last role was at Royal & SunAlliance where he was chief underwriter. He left in 2003 after being made redundant following the firm's restructuring. While at first he was unsure what to do, it wasn't long before Spittles decided to set up his own business.
"My initial thoughts were that I was too young to retire, so what was I going to do with all my industry expertise? And after talking to John Dearing, an industry colleague of mine, we decided to set up a company that would provide risk assessment and services to life assurers and reinsurers," he says.
ORS has been up and running since May 2003. As part of the Marlborough Stirling Group, it supplies underwriting and claims management services to the life and disability insurance market.
Expansion
Spittles points out that the service it offers varies because everyone wants something different.
"We tailor our service to what the client wants. We don't just say let us do your underwriting. Instead, we work with the client. We ask them what they are looking for.
"This could be providing clients with the whole process of underwriting, or at other times, it could just be us coming in to do some segments of work," he explains.
Spittles admits that it hasn't always been an easy ride. "Starting my own business has been a totally different experience compared with working for a big life insurance company where you feel you are protected," he says.
That said, ORS, which currently operates out of Basingstoke, Bristol and Cheltenham, has recently opened another two offices in Edinburgh and the Isle of Man. Further expansions also seem likely.
"It has never been our intention to remain just in the UK. I am hopeful that we will, by the end of the year, make even more expansion announcements," Spittles says.
Furthermore, the firm, which started off with eight employees has now increased its size to 60 members of staff. And it's unlikely to stop there. "We are continually looking to bring more people to work for us," he says.
Despite ORS's rapid growth, Spittles adds that recruiting employees has proved to be the toughest challenge for the firm so far. "It has been really hard getting the right quality of staff. There is a lot of talk within the industry at the moment about the fact that the quality of underwriters is not as good as it was ten years ago. One of the reasons for this is that a lot of the support services these companies used to offer, such as training and development, are not there anymore," he says.
"People have been looking at the short-term problems of today and not a lot of thought has been given to the long-term and the development of underwriters and claims experience in the industry," he adds.
To help solve this problem, ORS has set up its own training and development academy, which consists of an 11-week underwriting course. The firm has just had 12 of its own underwriters go through the academy and the service is also available to other companies as part of its outsourcing services.
Even if someone has a really good track record, says Spittles, it could prove to be essential to provide them with further training.
"Someone who hasn't been doing underwriting for a number of years needs to get their knowledge updated in order to keep abreast of new products and developments," he says.
Moreover, Spittles also thinks today's underwriters are lacking in confidence. He believes a confident underwriter could make all the difference when it comes to handling claims.
"Confidence is often missing when it comes to some underwriters. There is a lot of black and there is a lot of white. There are a lot of cases that are definitely going to be deferred and there are a lot of cases that can go straight through, but when it comes to claims, the biggest area is the grey one in the middle," he says.
This is where confidence plays a vital role. Spittles says the most important decision the underwriter has to make is the initial one, when it has to be decided whether what's written on the application form can be accepted or if it will have to be deferred.
Enormous benefits
"If the application has to be deferred it can take a couple of weeks before it is put on risk, during which time the client might change his mind rather than if the underwriter had accepted it on the day it was received," he adds.
According to Spittles, a lot of companies are also exacerbating the problem by getting their least experienced underwriters to make these decisions. He believes this is wrong and instead, companies should put the more experienced and confident underwriters in charge of making that initial decision because that is the most important part of the underwriting process.
Although the industry may have suffered from a number of problems over the recent years, Spittles still believes the benefits of the insurance industry are absolutely enormous to both families and businesses.
"In everything I do, my first thought is 'what is the customer's reaction going to be and how are they going to view what I have done?'
"My biggest failings have been when I haven't managed to get that across, and not just from my own perspective, but from an industry perspective as well," he says.
Looking to the future, Spittles says he expects the protection market to grow. This, he believes, will happen very quickly, with more and more companies turning their attention towards technology solutions and starting to acknowledge the benefits of outsourcing.
"That said, it doesn't matter how much technology you have in place. To make things work, you have got to get on with other people. At the end of the day, that is what this industry is all about," he says.
