International Brokers

COVID-19 has offered Colombian brokers a great opportunity to innovate and break down cultural barriers via innovative and disruptive solutions.

Juan Mario Acevedo PRESIDENT, CORRECOL

CORRECOL WAS ESTABLISHED in 1952 as a multinational by British and American brokers who joined forces to set up a network throughout Latin America. In 1962, they hired my father, and by 1972 he had purchased the firm. We have always had a multinational approach, although we are no longer owned by a multinational. Today, we represent more than 65 out of the top 100 brokers globally. If we have a Colombian client that needs a service in any part of the world, we can use our correspondents. Likewise, most of our incoming business is multinationals referred by our partners worldwide. These synergies allow us to be at forefront of innovation and adhere to global best practices. One of the main attributes we are proud of is Correcol’s flexibility. We do not depend on a parent office and are not a multinational company; therefore, our decision-making process is efficient. If we have to hire someone for a specific client, we will do it in a matter of minutes while our competitors have to consult with their home offices. It takes them longer to process matters. That flexibility and speed is one of Correcol’s competitive advantages. We are open to change and take decisions quickly. Also, our DNA is client focused. This is a family-owned company, and the only way to continue our growth and success is to have satisfied clients. We do everything possible to give clients that personal touch that provides an advantage over our competitors. For Correcol, it is important to extend the full scope of our attention to all clients, regardless of their size.

Rodolfo Arana GENERAL MANAGER, CORREDOR DE SEGUROS COOMEVA

WE ARE A DIFFERENT insurance broker in the Colombian market and our target is mainly focused on the community of Coomeva Cooperative members. At this moment, we have more than 255,000 professionals associated to our Cooperative. Coomeva Corredores de Seguros is part of the Coomeva Cooperative Business Group, and one of our objectives is to cover all the insurance needs of our associate’s community and our group of companies. We currently meet all our stakeholder’s individual needs, in terms of protection. Together with our strategic allies, which are the main insurance companies in our country, we have developed a business model based on the knowledge of our members, in order to generate a portfolio designed to their needs. Our first competitive advantage is our ability to manage the community. We permanently transform information into intelligence for decision making. This has allowed us to have a better performance, in a sustained manner and year after year. We have declared as a fundamental strategy the development of a set of initiatives that allow us to retain our client associates over time, generating in them greater loyalty based on high levels of satisfaction. We have achieved some positive results from this economic and health situation. In our case, we accelerated the implementation of all the digital strategies we had in our strategic plan. We launched in September 2020 a car product in which the whole process is 100% digital, from the quotation to the delivery to the customer, and this is innovative in Colombia. The pandemic forced us to provide more communication and service channels to our customers and has been an accelerator of digital transformation. Our products are mainly focused on mobility, unemployment, and life and health insurance.

Carlos Hernando Fonseca PRESIDENT, FONSECA SANCLEMENTE

WE ARE LEADERS in certain business areas, such as insurance for shopping centers, industrial parks, residential, and office buildings, which also includes home construction companies. In this sector, everything has yet to be defined. This appeals to us because it does not entice the so-called “build blockers,” which take little interest in such business since they see it as a client that needs close guidance. You have to be willing to assess and inform your clients carefully, which we are able to do and have the infrastructure to manage. We offer them personalized company management because both the technology and commercialization have to be tailor-made. In 2021, we want to continue building on our technological and commercial infrastructures. We are focused on the technological and commercial side, which go hand in hand and enable us to introduce new products that will also work as standalone offers. Technology will facilitate increased market penetration. The insurance sector is great because, among other reasons, it has no limits and is international. We are evolving rapidly, which goes to show that the sector was well prepared for the crisis. All the health, life, and catastrophic insurance-covered events brought about by the pandemic are opportunities for the industry to innovate and provide the public with solutions. If we cover terrorism in a shopping center, how can we not cover pandemic risks? What is tricky for product creation is the civil responsibility side of things, because, for example, if a shopping center allowed access and people were infected as a result, the legal representative can be accused of not having prevented this.

Juan Carlos Álvarez Jaramillo GENERAL MANAGER, JARGU CORREDORES DE SEGUROS

JARGU’S MARKET SPACE Focuses on state entities; 95% of its insurance portfolio is placed with public institutions. However, the pandemic and current market situation has forced us to rethink our service delivery. It also led us to move quickly and implement many of the tools we had planned in our business continuity plan. Two weeks before the government mandated the lockdown, we had already started working shifts and working from home. This allowed us to continue providing services without any difficulty. We activated control protocols that involved monitoring our employees and began to conduct motivational work in which people learned to work remotely with the boss supporting and resolving their issues. We did not make any large investments in computing tools because we had everything set up and ready. While we were in lockdown in 2020, we only had to go to the office twice to reset servers. We had access to all documents and files virtually. Communication with the insurance companies went extremely well. Fortunately, our product is mostly document-based and can easily be sent to customers. We have extremely customized service policies. Normally, the customer calls us to tell us what they need before sending us an email with a request. All the virtual meetings worked extremely well, and we had the opportunity to do many more. In addition, the pandemic also allowed us to reorganize ourselves quickly and create new workspaces. With all that we have learned during the pandemic, the balance has been positive because in terms of labor issues, labor performance, and the work and organizational climate, there have been more positives than negatives.