Because of its well-developed financial service infrastructure, Hong Kong has become the insurance hub of Southeast Asia with nearly 180 authorised insurers. The highly competitive and mature insurance sector accounts for more than 10 per cent of the city's GDP. While the total gross premiums of the insurance sector increased by 13.7 per cent last year, Prudential Assurance reported a 31per cent year-on-year business growth, according to the company's human resources director, Peggy Ho Yuen-yi. She attributed this to the company's five-year people-development strategy called 'Ripple'. 'Prudential owes its business success solely to its people, their capability, will and knowledge,' Ms Ho said. The Ripple strategy focuses on growth in three areas: business, manpower and structure. It is implemented in four phases, namely unity, rippling, fostering and harmonising. Prudential then aligns this strategy with its leadership-development programme which aims to cultivate a leadership team. Equipped with updated skills, these leaders are expected to transfer their knowledge and skills, and more importantly the company's fundamental values, to their subordinates through its progressive coaching mechanism, according to Ms Ho. All of Prudential's business activities are guided by its core values which are represented by the acronym 'Respect', which stands for respect, encouragement, support, practice, enjoyment, commitment and trust. The leadership development programme is built around a model concept called 'Wheel of Success'. With the Respect values at its core, the model has three pillars: people, integrity and performance. The Wheel of Success model is supported by six core competencies that include thinking and acting strategically, fostering innovation, developing talent, focusing on customers, and effective communication, according to Ms Ho. All of these core competencies and other skills are taught in the company's extensive structured manager and general staff development curricula. Ms Ho said Prudential did not operate under the leadership of an individual, but rather it had built a leadership team. 'Of course we have a chief executive [like other companies], but we believe that a well-aligned leadership team is more effective and powerful. Individuals have their own competencies. When we join forces, it will make a more powerful impact as we complement each other. 'To foster the growth of this team, the company organises various activities as a platform, such as the Leaders Forum, for the leaders [of different divisions] to share experience and tackle challenges together and facilitate their communication,' she said. Apart from the forum, the leadership development programme includes a cross-departmental sharing session that helps promote positive relationships; and a leadership simulation which helps managers build target competencies. Supported by a well-developed leadership team, Prudential began implementing various initiatives outlined in the 'Unity' phase of the Ripple strategy last year to further strengthen the company's team spirit. 'The objective of this phase is to establish 'one company, one goal',' Ms Ho said. 'The Unity phase was completed successfully as indicated by the 31per cent year-on-year business growth last year.' The 'Rippling' phase focuses on the transfer of knowledge and communication of common values by the leadership team. To cultivate a corporate coaching environment, senior managers attend intensive coaching skills courses. Through strategies implemented in both phases, the company's staff were expected to firmly establish a common goal, to speak in a common language and operate by its core values, Ms Ho said. When the business became more complex with multiple product mixes and its staff were able to effectively apply the skills and techniques learnt in the previous two phases, the company would develop necessary systems for its staff to meet future business challenges in the Fostering phase, Ms Ho said. 'We visualise that we will have achieved our goal in the Ripple strategy when we reach the 'Harmonising' phase which is designed for sustaining the growth momentum.' The company also implementd a leadership review mechanism through which an executive committee formulated and updated succession plans for each division, Ms Ho said. 'We identify if each division has an appropriate successor in place. We will also look at the strengths and weaknesses of these successors and provide specific training [to improve their skills] accordingly.' Prudential employs more than 700 staff in Hong Kong and works with more than 4,000 agents. Growth strategy Prudential's business grew markedly in 2007 after it adopted a people-development strategy The strategy's objective is to establish 'one company, one goal' The company fosters team-based leadership
