Lloyd’s of London is facing a “once in a generation opportunity” to lead the marketplace in delivering new solutions and confronting the challenges of a changing risk landscape, according to its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) John Neal.
“As a sector, our choice is to continue with business as usual and become irrelevant or change and realise an enormous opportunity in the world of risk,” he told delegates at the 2019 MMC Rising Professional’s Global Forum in London this week.
Neal recognised that the marketplace is currently facing a number of challenging headwinds, with the cost of doing business at Lloyd’s remaining high and a looming talent crisis on the technology side.
“Our products simply aren’t keeping up with the changing landscape of risks and we’re not harnessing all of the new capital that’s knocking on the door,” he explained.
“We are not yet seen as the desirable industry for young bright minds to want to work in, and is it any surprise when there are so many challenges in and around our marketplace?”
Neal claimed that Lloyd’s would have to reinvent itself, using the highly customer centric approach pioneered by companies like Amazon.
“Lloyd’s has always been a platform – a marketplace where brokers, underwriters and capital have come together to create and exchange value by exchanging risk, ultimately for the benefit of our customers,” he said. “The building blocks are in place. Now we have the challenge of unlocking and evolving a 330-year-old platform.”
He also acknowledged that speed and change have not historically been compatible at Lloyd’s, but remained hopeful that all the components of the change agenda would be operational in some capacity by 2020.
“We want a collaborative expert community that improves underwriting and provides consistently excellent products and services,” Neal told delegates.
“For capital, it means making it easier and less expensive to attach to risk. For brokers, it means the value proposition of being part of the Lloyd’s ecosystem creates accelerated growth opportunities and that ultimately creates true and unique value for customers.”
