New Sun Life Phl chief bullish on growth goals
The new chief executive officer and country head of Sun Life Financial Philippines is confident that the insurer is well-poised to sustain its leading market position and robust performance, as it strives to achieve its goal of serving five million clients by 2020.
In an interview with The STAR, Sun Life chief executive officer Benedict Sison expressed his optimism over the company’s continued strong performance.
“In the first half of this year, we actually grew by over 40 percent compared to last year. We are confident that we will continue to have a good year because of several factors, namely, favorable demographics, the growing middle class and increased awareness among Filipinos of the benefits of being insured and being invested. That is where financial education plays a big role. We are aggressively pursuing financial literacy campaigns to raise a financially prepared generation that can put a stop to the cycle of financial burden and financial dependency,” said Sison, who took over the reins of leadership from Riza Mantaring last July 1 and is now at the helm of the company’s five-year growth plan called RI5E PH.
Client-focused approach
Sun Life has consistently been at the No. 1 spot for seven strong years now. Based on a report from the Insurance Commission (IC), Sun Life sold P32.1 billion in insurance premiums in 2017.
Key to sustaining the top position and achieving stellar growth rate is Sun Life’s commitment to put the welfare of the client first.
“At the center of everything that we do is the client. At the heart of our mission statement is the client. Our purpose is to help our clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives. So any innovation or change that we introduce in the company is all for our clients to have a better experience with us, and because of that, we are able to sustain our leadership position. Staying focused on the client allowed us to get ahead in this game,”Sison said.
“Our five-E growth strategies – Expand, Engage, Enable, Equip and Explore – takes inspiration from our being client-focused. We are expanding our market reach so that our insurance and investment solutions reach more Filipinos. Number two, we’re also engaging our clients through specially designed touchpoints, communications, and motivation schemes. Third, we enable our advisers with advanced training and education so they are enabled to provide top-quality advice to our clients. And then we enhance people’s capabilities by equipping them with digital tools. Lastly, we explore untapped and undertapped segments that need access to our financial solutions. These are the key initiatives to really increase our client base,” he said.
Sustaining growth ahead of targets
When Sun Life launched RI5E PH back in 2016, it envisioned to serve and uplift five million lives by 2020. Under the plan, Sun Life is set to triple its client base by championing financial inclusion to a greater number of Filipinos. The new country head said there is now a significant progress on the company’s five-year growth plan.
“At the end of 2015 we only had 1.5 million clients. That year was our 120th year. And when you think about it, it took us 120 years to get to 1.5 million. And here we are, we planned to have 3.5 million more clients in a period of five years. Very ambitious right? But guess what, as of the end of June 2018, we already had 3.9 million clients. That was more than double of what we had. In fact, it’s a 160-percent growth from the 1.5 million we had by the end of 2015. That is why we are very confident in achieving our target of five million clients by the end of 2020. I think we will meet it earlier, but we’d like to keep 2020 as our target for now. What made us achieve this is our clientfocused approach, proper execution of our strategy, and partnerships with organizations that share the same vision,” Sison said.
Joining hands with like-minded partners
An important realization for Sun Sison Life is the strength derived from partnering with other organizations that have the same vision of spreading knowledge, achieving financial literacy, and expanding access. Sison mentioned working together with a low-cost mass housing company where Sun Life held financial literacy sessions for the unit owners. The result surpassed expectations.
“A low-cost mass housing company required their unit owners to attend a financial literacy session, about 12,000–15,000 of them. We partnered in the financial security education series. Sun Life taught the savings and investment portion while our partner company discussed matters on how to budget and how to manage expenses. We have brought the price point down to as low as P100 to allow more Filipinos access to reliable investment and insurance options.” he said.
Another example is Sun Life’s partnership with online shopping portal Lazada. Under the joint venture, Lazada members can now avail Sun Life’s new personal accident insurance product, Family Armor, via the website www.lazada.com.ph.
About the new CEO
Aside from his efforts to maintain market position and continue growth as the new CEO and country head, Sison was also instrumental in his previous role as Sun Life’s chief strategy and financial management officer in 2015, where he was responsible for driving and monitoring the company’s overall strategy towards successful implementation in the Philippines.
Sison joined Sun Life in 2010 as chief finance officer and was responsible for the overall financial leadership of Sun Life of Canada (Philippines) Inc. (SLOCPI) and its subsidiaries, Sun Life Asset Management Company, Sun Life Financial Plans, Inc., and the Sun Life Prosperity family of funds.
In 2012, Sison was promoted as Asia-CFO in the company’s regional office in Hong Kong, where he handled overall financial leadership of Sun Life in Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam and India.