Vice President - Distribution Planning & Management - Life Insurance

This role is a leadership role with India's leading Life Insurer

Job Specification:

Distribution Planning & Program Management (DPPM) is the centralized strategy and support unit for all sales channels and distribution of the organization. It connects the sales and distribution team with all the other functions in the company and plays as a powerful leverage-point for driving the improvements in sales behavior and effectiveness that result in revenue and profitability gains. It also provides superior competitive analyses to the company leadership through consumer insights, market trends and competition, in order to aid strategic decision making for sales enablement.

Purpose Of The Job:

1. Head a vertical under DPPM with a team of 20 or more and 30-40outsourced executives though 3 or 4 direct reporting leads.

2. Drive organizations retail business topline, profitability, quality, productivity, reduce attrition, etc through structured secondary compensation schemes, variable budgets and product mix management / councils

3. Spearhead one of the largest Insurtech initiative in the BFSI sector for the development of advanced Incentive & Commission Management Systems

4. Improve overall Login to Conversion efficiency for retail new business through segmented analysis, collaborate for operational process improvement, FR call center, outsourcing and other initiatives

5. Manage various Audits (Internal, Regulatory, Statutory, Concurrent, SOX, etc); draw processes / policies and or its framework compliant to Regulations and or company policies, mitigate risks and draw corrective / preventive actionable for Sales and Distribution in collaboration with concerned stakeholders

6. Periodically connect with distribution teams to understand bottlenecks, ground issues and realities, etc. Capture inputs / issues raised by distribution and self troubleshoot or resolve in collaboration with concerned stakeholders

7. Manage the development / enhancement of inhouse department tools or systems viz.: Sales Connect platform for issue resolutions), Customer Ownership Policy engine and scorecard, Sales communication, Zonal Budgeting and Expense Management System, Incentive and Commission Management System, etc.

8. Present updates to Senior Management / CXOs periodically or on invite on the above.

Note: The job involves constant coordination and collaboration with key stakeholders / CXOs across department and functions - Sales channels, Products, Actuaries, Business Insights, Marketing, Operations (Branch / Hub), Underwriting, Medical, Admin, Tech teams, etc.

Duties & Responsibilities:

1. Distribution planning: Annual operating plan, budgeting and manpower planning for the Department and outsourced New Business call centre

2. Program Management: Secondary Compensation design and fulfilment of over 3000-3500+ schemes per annum along with its backend operations across all distribution channels (employees and individual advisors/partners only) with aim to achieve topline without overrun, increase productivity and reduce attrition; variable budget management of ~1000 cr per annum and its periodic governance with relevant stakeholders; zonal budget system management and its policies; cost control and optimization, etc.

3. Anchor the council jointly with Actuaries and Product teams periodically to drive organization / channel level Product Mix, profitable business segments and control NBM / NBC driving levers, increase sales of focus / NBM driving products (viz. Pension, Term, Annuity & Riders), etc.

4. Spearheading one of the largest Insurtech initiative in the BFSI sector for the development of advanced Incentive & Commission Management Systems (ICM) aiming to modernize archaic compensation, with goals including improved budget management and financial controls, system driven incentive schemes / contests, near real-time performance updates, automated and expedited pay-outs, and innovative analytical reporting, among other benefits.

5. Business quality: Managing business quality initiatives / projects which are of importance to distribution. i.e. New Business conversion TAT improvement, Reduction in new business leakage, 13M Persistency improvement, Frontend-Backend connects, etc.

6. Executive Education Programs / MDP: Structure and organize such programs for CXO+ groups with global universities like INSEAD Paris, IMD Lausanne, London Business School, etc basis Organization / Channel asks.

7. Distribution operations and support: New Business conversion support, Call centre operations and outsourcing, QRC management, Re-insurer ask management, Sales technology development / enhancement / change management, Process change management, Sales aid creation / training, MIS management, CSAT / ESAT / DSAT, etc.

8. Audit, Risk, Compliance, Regulatory change implementations, filings and reporting for entire sales and distribution in collaboration with concerned stakeholders

9. Business process management: Process / policies management and its assurance for entire sales and distribution in collaboration with concerned stakeholders

10. Sales connect: Draw the Sales communication framework, execute the same and increase visibility / reach. Must also establish connect with field force on various themes through surveys / FGDs / calls, etc and capture the ground requirements, validate them and take forward for logical closures with respective stakeholders; and anchor meetings / self resolve concerns raised by distribution teams capturing details in inhouse system like BizConnect or track on spreadsheets, etc. Essential

Knowledge:

- Strong understanding of Life Insurance business domain and different lines of business

- Working knowledge of distribution operations, framework, products, etc

- Proficient in Project and Business Process Management

- Proficient in application of business tools viz. MS office suite, Qlik, etc.

- Strong Analytical skills

- Correspondence Etiquettes

Desirable :

- Sales Technology

- Exposure in various types of Audit and Risk Management procedures

Work Related Skills:

Critical skill sets required for the role:

- Data interpretation & analytical skills

- Effective verbal and written communication skills

- Effective presentation skills

- Should be able to multi-task

- Experience in Team Handling Roles

- Stakeholder management

- Decision making

Professional Experience:

- Overall 12-15 yrs (including atleast 7-10 years in Life Insurance).

- 3-5 years in Analytics related role

Education : Post Graduate (Any stream)

Geography Related:

Language Fluency:

- Read/write/speak - Hindi/ Marathi/Tamil etc) or if the candidate

- Should belonging to or has worked in Specific geographies Based out of Mumbai / Navi Mumbai preferable