Head of Customer Operations

About FWD Group

FWD Group is a pan-Asian life and health insurance business with more than 12 million customers across 10 markets, including some of the fastest-growing insurance markets in the world. The company was established in 2013 and is focused on changing the way people feel about insurance. FWD’s customer-led and digitally enabled approach aims to deliver innovative propositions, easy-to-understand products and a simpler insurance experience.

For more information, please visit www.fwd.com

PURPOSE

• Lead, own and formulate the strategy and roadmap for operations management and strategy, including underwriting and claims aligned to FWD vision, to develop market leading risk-based management frameworks and next generation solutions to enable innovation and delivery of large-scale successful transformation for the creation of customer and business value to achieve sustainable business growth.
• Lead, manage, coach, collaborate and guide Group and Market teams to align to the strategic roadmap and embed  market leading strategies and new innovative experiences to enable continuous improvement of customer experience and business efficiency outcomes through a holistic customer centric application.
• Lead, manage, coach and develop a team of high performing individuals who are viewed as subject matter experts in Group and markets who can competently lead, execute and deliver the strategic initiatives for underwriting and claims to meet and exceed strategic KPI's whilst encouraging and driving a culture of continuous learning and development through new ways of working and ideation of solutions leveraging new and emerging technologies.

KEY ACCOUNTAIBILITIES

• Responsible to shape, direct and articulate the strategy, vision and plan for market leading underwriting and claims enhancement using data driven insights, customer and business pain-points to ensure risk management, customer and operational management perspectives are considered and included with compelling commercial and business outcomes to all related stakeholders.
• Responsible to ensure the strategy links in to FWD overall strategy and vision to enable the continuous improvement of strategic customer journey transformation KPIs, ensuring these solutions are highly scalable across markets for full efficiency and optimisation and remain relevant, market leading, flexible and adaptable for competitive advantage to meet the changing needs of business, markets and customers.
• Responsible be a strong advocate for FWD vision and strategy and ensure overall alignment with group (actuarial and risk), market and reinsurance partners to support FWD underwriting and claims strategies, philosophies and practices to the benefit of FWD, whilst ensuring compliance to regulations and align with risk tolerance preference within the risk appetite of the Group.
• Responsible for the company investment and cost on solutions which are Group-led and proactively ensure these are accounted for in market budgets and business plans for ease of buy-in and execution.
• Responsible to keep abreast of market trends and insights to ensure FWD can stay in front of competition and be at the forefront of innovation in operations solutions and enhanced customer experience and build up external networks in the industry through conferences, seminars and other opportunities..
• Responsible to bring new ideas and opportunities to Group and markets through strategic thinking application to evaluate and analyse current state and identify opportunities for development and testing of hypotheses to drive next generation ideas and solutions..
• Responsible to know the markets strengths and weakness, current management performance  / KPI's to facilitate senior leadership discussions in various forums by ensuring: monthly monitoring of strategic KPI's; Quarterly meetings with COO's in markets; and ensuring each market has a scheduled in-depth claim management and retrospective underwriting review processes in place.  .
• Lead and collaborate with high-performing functional teams from multiple domain expertise to integrate diverse needs and perspectives to develop fresh ideas and solutions to ensure our customers are in the center of the journey design, and their best interests are fully considered and incorporated..
• Lead, manage and coach a team of subject matter experts and ensure each person has a development plan in place to grow and reach their full potential and be adaptable to new technologies and agile ways of working. Develop meaningful objectives linked to strategic direction and development needs.
• Recognised as the most expert leader in key operational management aspects for the Group demonstrated by  strong and competent leadership in areas of expertise with a high performing team of individuals who achieve and deliver results consistently for group and markets with a proactive and can-do attitude, building trust, respect and credibility..
• Provide valued thought leadership and insight on how to seize market opportunity and be successful in solution delivery that fosters a common language, set of best practices and cross functional capabilities to deliver results.
• Foster a culture of learning, sharing, commitment, collaboration and continuous improvement and delivery of customer value aligned with FWDs overall brand Vision and Strategy.

QUALIFICATIONS / EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor or master’s degree in business or related.
• Minimum 15 years’ experience in Financial Services / Insurance industry working in multi-national environments and at regional leadership capacity.
• Minimum 10 years’ experience in operations management, underwriting and Claims management in life and health insurance operations in a leadership role.
• Proven experience working in a dynamic and evolving business environment and demonstrated ability to transform business and people to deliver results for a large set up across different cultures.
• Proven experience in leading and developing high performing teams with a diverse background and culture.
• Proven experience in applying data and analytics to track performance, identify problems, source solutions and pivot strategy where and when needed.
• Proven experience in leading, influencing, motivating and guiding markets to formulate management strategies aligned to strategic outcomes and company vision and monitoring effectiveness

KNOWLEDGE & TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Broad and comprehensive knowledge of financial services, insurance operation, products and customer experience.
• Strong technical underwriting and claim risk management risk assessment skills across medical, non-medical and financial aspects with deep understanding of how these apply to product, pricing and insurance risk.
• Strong ability to demonstrate how a solution can solve customer and business problems and create sustainable value.
• Extensive market awareness and knowledge of customer solution trends in operations management  across Asia with built up external network.
• Comprehensive experience in developing strategic management frameworks and strategies to lay foundations for customer value creation and business outcomes.
• Exceptional negotiation, stakeholder and influencing skills and the ability to motivate and earn trust across senior and functional leadership in Group and across markets.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with and influence diverse groups of senior executives that have expertise in different domains and at times conflicting agendas.
• Demonstrated proficiency to work and adapt in a dynamic environment where strategies and priorities may need to shift and change.
• Excellent communication, articulation, relationship building and storytelling skills.
• Exceptional eye for detail and a strong creative and strategic thinker
• Exceptional analytical and critical thinking skills to identify and solve problems.
• Extensive knowledge of international / regional insurance regulations, standards and protocols.