Janashakthi Life: Ushering in a new era of growth and innovation

Janashakthi Life Director / CEO Ravi Liyanage handing over the equipment to Senior Lecturer in Medicine and Hon. Consultant Physician, Colombo South Teaching Hospital – Kalubowila, Dr. Shehan Silva representing Janashakthi Foundation

As a forerunner in Sri Lanka’s insurance industry for over 26 years, Janashakthi Insurance PLC recently revealed plans to revolutionise the industry. 

Sri Lanka’s life insurance with a less than 1% penetration presents an enormous potential for the industry players as well as the development of the country. With the spread of the COVID-19 disease, Sri Lankans have become more aware of risks in life, thereby, showing an increased interest towards life insurance policies. 

As a member of Janashakthi Group, the leading life insurer plans to support much-needed financial support with innovative life insurance solutions that will support the community to navigate these challenging times better. Janashakthi Insurance PLC Director/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ravi Liyanage recently sat down with Daily FT to discuss the firm’s plans to revolutionise the country’s life insurance in the current context. Following are excerpts of the discussion: 

By Nishel Fernando

Q: How does Janashakthi Insurance PLC plan to revolutionise the insurance industry?

Janashakthi is looking at revolutionising the industry to be an innovative insurance provider in the country. We are mapping the innovation as a group strategy for the organisation in many folds.

Firstly, we are looking at innovation in our products portfolio. So, we are in the process of creatively identifying the gaps in the market including both consumer and industrial markets, to find a gap and fulfil it innovatively where other insurance providers haven’t looked at. We are also looking at providing solutions that are innovative and unique. The innovation-led product development will be one key strategy to revolutionise the industry. 

We will also utilise technology to innovate key processes, which means technology will be used extensively to deploy our sales force effectively, because insurance policies are still sold, not bought in the local industry. We will continue to deploy our sales team effectively and empower them with innovative ways of supporting the community. 

When it comes to customer service; we are looking at technology-led innovation in order to manage the customer touchpoints, thereby, we can identify gaps in service delivery in these customer touch points and we will adopt technology to deliver solutions for those touch points. 

Q: What has been the progress of this journey so far?

We are seeing a very promising development so far and our strong performance is a testament to the success of our growth journey and strategy. When you look at the first quarter, we have outperformed industry average in main KPIs. In the second quarter, if you look at our growth business-wise or first-year premium-wise, we have outperformed two insurers who are in the same league with us. Further, we have outperformed and moved our market share in first-year premiums by two market positions in the period. This illustrates our innovative business approach is yielding results, although, the real payoff will only come to play in 2022. 

Q: What are the innovations introduced by Janashakthi Life to tackle the COVID-19 situation?

 Under the context of the current pandemic situation, we were the first insurer to come with a very comprehensive insurance policy and we also updated certain existing products extending their cover in terms of death. 

In mid last year, we launched a very comprehensive COVID-19 product (Janashakthi COVID guard) that covers not only life or death per say, but also other COVID-19 related implications such as quarantines, hospitalisations, PCR tests and so on. We were the first to introduce such a comprehensive policy to the market and this remains the only comprehensive COVID-19 product available in the market. 

Q: How has COVID-19 disrupted Sri Lanka’s life insurance market?

The demand for innovative solutions to ensure the financial stability due to COVID-19 related challenges remains very high at the moment and it is getting enhanced under current market conditions. We have also seen a growth in demand for other products, because, by and large, consumers have understood that there’s a risk to life.

I must say that the risk awareness has been much greater, so the other products also grew with many innovative changes we brought into products and processes we adopted. 

Q: What would be the role of Janashakthi Life to rebuild the economy post-COVID-19 to ensure business continuity and economic stability in the country?

 As we continue to navigate this challenging economic landscape, it is important that we remain resilient. As a purpose-driven insurer, we will continue to provide solutions that cater to the protection needs of Sri Lankans. In addition, we have restructured our distribution landscape with a focus on geographic expansion to reach out to the market aggressively with a combination of physical presence as well as a strong digital interface. We aim to provide more employment opportunities with our robust expansion plans with internally generated funds, creating a greater contribution to the country’s GDP.

Furthermore, as a Group we have activated several initiatives to support the nation’s battle against COVID-19 through our philanthropic arm, the Janashakthi Foundation. Janashakthi Foundation together with its Group companies – First Capital Holdings PLC, Janashakthi Insurance PLC, Orient Finance PLC and Kelsey Developments PLC has been playing an active role in combating the COVID-19 pandemic from the beginning of the lockdown in Sri Lanka in 2020. We recently donated essential intensive care unit equipment such as ventilators, multipara monitors and oxygen therapy machines to several national hospitals island-wide and will continue these relief initiatives to support the authorities combat the ongoing COVID-19-related challenges. 

The philanthropic arm of the Group was initiated to continue our journey in supporting the nation and local communities. As such, the Janashakthi Foundation drives its vision of helping people and communities grow under its three pillars; sports, education and community development, and will continue to empower our communities and support the nation.