Business Times Malaysia By Goh Thean Eu Published: 2010/02/04
Prudential Assurance Malaysia chief executive officer is upbeat on the company and the insurance industry's outlook for this year
PRUDENTIAL Assurance Malaysia Bhd is optimistic of sustaining growth momentum of its Bumiputera sales force, which doubled in 2009, as it strives to grow its Islamic products and services business.
Currently, about one-fifth of the company's turnover is derived from Islamic products and services. It aims to penetrate the underserved Bumiputera market by hiring more sales force to serve the segment better.
It has about 11,000 agents, comprising 3,000 Bumiputera agents. A year ago, it had 9,000 agents comprising 1,500 Bumiputera agents.
"There's still great potential in this (Bumiputera) market, it's very much untapped," said chief executive officer Charlie Oropeza.
He was also upbeat on the company and the insurance industry's outlook for this year.
"We share the same optimism as the industry," he said.
Recently, the Life Insurance Association of Malaysia said that it expects new business sales to grow by 12.5 per cent on weighted premium basis to RM3.6 billion this year.
Oropeza was speaking to the media after the launch of its new training facility in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
The facility, called Prudential Training Academy, will be used to train its employees and agency force. Before the facility was built, the company organised trainings at its respective branches nationwide.
"With its full-fledged training and dorm facilities, we are confident that this new training centre will provide a better and even more conducive learning environment," he said.
With dormitories that can accommodate up to 130 at any given time, the facility also houses two large training rooms and a computer room that can cater to a maximum of 170 participants in total at any one time.
"It is inevitable that our business environment and consumers' expectations will continue to evolve. Ongoing training is therefore vital to ensure that we will have necessary knowledge and skills not only to keep up with the rapidly changing trends, but more importantly, to serve our customers better," he said.
He added that human capital development is an essential ingredient to retain staff loyalty.
"Our agents, on average, have been with us for over 15 years," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment