Insurance Australia Group: Corporate Identification, Operations, and Competitive Advantage

This report analyzes Insurance Australia Group's corporate identification, operations, and sources of sustainable competitive advantage. It also discusses their revenue centres and diversification strategy. The report includes information on their operations in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia.

Running head: Strategic management
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Corporate identification.............................................................................................................3
Business operations and brands..............................................................................................3
Operations of the company conduct in Australia...................................................................4
Operation conducted in New Zealand....................................................................................5
Operation conducted in New Zealand....................................................................................5
Sources of Sustainable competitive advantage.......................................................................5
Corporate revenue centres..........................................................................................................7
Product and service lines which are creating the largest revenue..........................................7
Summary table of their revenue.................................................................................................8
Diversification of Insurance Australia Group........................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................11

Strategic management 1

Strategic management 2
Introduction
In this changing economy, Strategic management analysis is used by a number of
organizations for the purpose of conducting the operations of their business in effective
manner. There are number of factors which affect the operations of the business directly, and
these factors are comprised into two parts that are internal factors and external factors. It is
necessary for the company to evaluate all these factors for the purpose of ensuring effective
strategic plans and decisions. Strategic analysis is considered as the research conducted
related to the environment of the business in which organization operates and conduct its
functions. In other words, it is considered as the responsibility of the strategic planner for the
purpose of identifying the needs of their business and also for developing the plans in context
of guiding the directions to the business (Sarkis&Sundarraj, 2000).
For framing this report, Insurance Australia group (IAG) is chosen as case study, as this
company is considered as the one of the most trusted and respected insurance brands in those
regions in which company conduct its operations. Structure of this paper consists four parts
that are identification of the corporation, sources related to the sustainable competitive
advantage, corporate revenue centres, and diversification strategy of the business is defined.
Corporate identification
IAG’s businesses ensure the $11 billion of premium on annual basis, and for this purpose this
company sells insurance under different leading brands, and these brands includes NRMA
Insurance, CGU, SGIO, SGIC, Swann Insurance and WFI(Australia); NZI, State, AMI and
Lumley Insurance (New Zealand); Safety and NZI (Thailand); AAA Assurance (Vietnam);
and AsuransiParolamas (Indonesia).This company also shows interest in the general
insurance through joint ventures in two countries that is Australia and India (IAG, 2018).

Strategic management 3
(IAG, 2018)
Business operations and brands
Following are the operations of the IAG which are conducted with the help of numerous
brands:
 This company distributes its short tail personal insurance products in victoria under
the RACV brand, through the distribution relationship and guaranteeing joint venture
with the RACV. All these insurance products are distributed by the RACV products
and manufacturer of these products is the Insurance Manufacturers of Australia Pty
Limited (IMA). IAG holds 70% in the IMA and 30% of the IMA is hold by the
RACV.
 100% stake is hold by the IAG in the WFI Insurance Limited (WFI), the underwriter
of the general insurance products under the Coles Insurance brand. Distribution of
these products is done by Coles in context of the authorized representative agreement
with WFI (IAG, n.d.).
 98.6% beneficial interest is hold by the IAG under the Safety Insurance, based in
Thailand, which trades under the safety and NZI brands.
 49% of the general insurance arm of Malaysian-based AmBank Group, mGeneral
Holdings Berhad (AmGeneral) is owned by IAG, and this company conducts its trade
under the AmAssurance and Kurnia brands.
SafetyNZIThailandNewZealandAustraliaVietnam

Strategic management 4
 26% of the stake is own by the IAG in the SBI General Insurance Company, and this
business unit is conducted in context of the joint venture underwritten with the State
Bank of India.
 63.17% of the stake is own by the IAG in the AAA Assurance Corporation, conduct
its operation in Vietnam.
 80% of the stake is owned by the IAG in the PT AsuransiParolamas, based in
Indonesia.
Operations of the company conduct in Australia
In July 2017, establishment of the single Australian division is announced by the IAG, as this
division helps the company in simplify its operating model by connecting the Australian
Consumer, Australian Business, Operations and Satellite Divisions. It further helps in
centralizing the accountability for the consumer product and functions related to the
distribution and operations in context of Australian brands of IAG such as NRMA Insurance,
CGU, WFI, SGIO and SGIC (IAG, n.d.).
This company operated almost two divisions in the Australia and these divisions are operated
before the establishment of this new division, and recent financial results in terms of these
divisions for the year ended 2016 is stated below:
 Division of Australian consumers allocates the products related to the general
insurance directly to the consumers through the NRMA Insurance, SGIO, SGIC, and
RACV brands, and it also allocates products indirectly with the help of intermediaries
which includes financial institutions and affinity groups. GWP of $3 million is
generated by the Consumer Division for the half year to 31 December 2016 and this
accounted for the 53% of IAG's gross written premium for the half year.
 Australia business division offers the insurance to the customers related to the
business also, and these products are offered under the CGU, Swann Insurance and
WFI brands. This division of the IAG generates GWP of approximately $1.4 billion
for the half year to 31 December 2016 and this amount is accounted for 25% of gross
written premium (IAG, 2016).
Operation conducted in New Zealand
This company is the leading general insurance provider in the New Zealand through both
direct and indirect channels. IAG sold the products related to the insurance to the customers

Strategic management 5
in predominant manner such through direct channel (under the State and AMI brands), and
through indirect channel (insurance brokers and authorized representatives) under the NZI
and Lumley Insurance brands. GWP of approximately $1.1 billion is generated by the NZ for
the half year to 31 December 2016, which represents almost 19% of the group GWP (IAG,
n.d.).
Operation conducted in New Zealand
On 31st December 2016, in Asia, net amount invested by IAG is $797 million. Some of the
markets of Asia in which this group conduct its operations are sated below:
 Thailand- beneficial interest of 98.6% was hold by IAG in Safety Insurance, a main
motor insurer. IAG operates this business on the basis of single license by using two
brands that are Safety (personal lines) and NZI (commercial lines). In this country,
IAG generated GWP of $173 million for the half year ended 31 December 2016.
 Malaysia- IAG holds 49% of the interest under the general insurance arm of AmBank
Group, AmGeneral Holdings Berhad (AmGeneral), and wholly owned subsidiary of
these brands trade under the AmAssurance and Kurnia brands. In this context, GWP
for the first half of the 2017 financial year was $245 million, with the share of the
IAG’s being $120 million (IAG, 2017).
Sources of Sustainable competitive advantage
In the modern business world, when the competition rate increases on constant basis, it has
become essential for the organisations to make sure that their resources of competencies will
help them in giving competitive advantage over the rivals (Insurance Australia Group,2018).
Modern day business environment calls for implementation of effective business functioning
for ensuring long term growth. For ensuring long term growth the thing that is required the
most is that all the units of the organisation must contribute the business (Coyte, Ricceri, &
Guthrie, 2012).
There are four competitive advantages of the firm first is the research lab of the Insurance
Australia gives them competitive advantage over the market. This is because the demands of
the market are changing at much faster rate and the Insurance industry is developing
accordingly (Insurance Australia Group,2018). In this regards, the research labs of the

Strategic management 6
company gives them knowledge regarding how the market condition is changing, what sorts
of the demands they have in the market. It also helps in ensuring that they make plans for
ensuring that they are providing services as per the requirement of the firm (Saeidi et al,
2015). Research department also gives them sustainable competitive advantage as it is
ensuring that there will be long term investments in the areas where the industry is moving.
Since for having the competitive advantage over the rivals it is important that company have
the strategies for making the things work in their favour. This also includes the foreign
investments they want to do in their industry (Tabak, Fazio, and Cajueiro, 2012). After
research the most crucial role that arises is of finance department as they will help the firm in
achieving the goals under the financial limits. Since it has to manage the internal financial
problems as well as also check the financial condition that is in the business environment
(Dodgson et al, 2011).
Second is the that they have a high cash crunch as well as huge market base along with the
larger numbers of loyal clients. The faith and trust that its clients have in them gives them the
biggest competitive advantage over their rivals (Hackman, 2005). In order to reduce the
complexity in their business decision making, they have been making decentralised business
strategy. This helps them to make many decisions on the local basis but there will be cross
checking of the decisions at the higher levels (Maditinos et al, 2011).
Third is their strategic planning team. Their decision making unit comprises of the members
that is having higher knowledge of the business operations. This helps them in making of the
business decisions especially related to the insurance policies more unique (Newson, et. al.,
2017). Over the years they have been following many expansion policies which helped them
in gaining the edge over the market as well as increase the revenue of the firm. Recently they
are setting themselves for the retrenchment strategy where they will sell their four Asian
units. This is because they are facing huge losses in the Asian market approx. 6 million AUD.
Quick response to the business environment has been biggest competencies (Harley, et. al.,
2011). Till now it was the biggest insurer by market share in the countries like Thailand,
Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. With their investments in the new areas of the Insurance,
they have ensured that there will chances of long term development (Acharya, Gromb and
Yorulmazer, 2012).
Forth thing that provides them competitive advantage is that they have a highly skilled
workforce, which has helped the firm in making competitive advantage over the rivals. In any

Strategic management 7
Insurance firm, it is highly essential that they have a skilled workforce and it is the most basic
thing that gives them competitive advantage over the rivals (Hawker, 2007).The quality
services that IAG is providing to its market base helped them in adding value to its products
and services and hence adding to client’s satisfaction.
It is the result of their sustainable approach that they got so many awards on different
platforms in the year 2014, 2015 and 2016. It was also included in the MSCI Global
Sustainability Index Series. It was also included in the FTSE4 good Index Series in 2016.
Corporate revenue centres
In IAG, various types of corporate revenue centres exist which is playing a crucial role in
increasing the revenue of the company and hence ensuring success of the firm. They are not
directly adding to the profits of the company rather they help in making the profits higher
(Barney, 2012). They have their operation in various parts of the world and they are operating
with various functional units (Benn and Dunphy, 2013). Revenue centres measures the
revenue of the company in terms of output or fiscal standing and hence they are the corporate
establishments that are exempted from accountability and profit generation. The performance
is measures by comparing the actual sales to the projected sales or number of revenue or sales
per time scale (Theodosiou, Kehagias and Katsikea, 2012).
Relationship between the business units and the corporation
Their business unit relationship can be understood in terms of revenue as well as profits they
are making.

Strategic management 8
SGIO
Lumley Insurance
CGU insurance
SGIC insurance
NZI
AMI
NZI Thailand
AmAssurance
Safety Insurance
0
10
20
30
40
50
Busienss untis relationshiop in terms
of reveune
Revenue (AUD $ in
million)
SGIO
Lumley Insurance
CGU insurance
SGIC insurance
NZI
AMI
NZI Thailand
AmAssurance
Safety Insurance
0%
4%
8%
12%
Business units relationship in terms
of Profit
Net Profit
Product and service lines which are creating the largest revenue
Insurance Australia Group has large numbers of products and services lines available in their
market. These lines are generating huge amount of profits for the company (Yazdifar and
Askarany, 2012). It is to be understood that most of their products are made as per the
demand in the market as well as the trend that is being followed within the organisation
(Yates and Bradbury, 2010).Their financial report of 2016 depicts that the number of
products that are making success in the market have increased (Díaz-Fernández, González-

Strategic management 9
Rodríguez & Simonetti, 2015). All the three products line of the insurance industry in
Australia is making profits namely general insurance, life insurance and health insurance.
This company is offering its products in the areas like commercial, general, content and
vehicle insurance. Their major product line that it is offering and is generating largest profits
is their general insurance (Oh, Park and Ghauri, 2013). This is because they have huge
amount of products in which they offer insurance. Their profits have raise up to $1.3 billion.
With their joint ventures done in various parts of the world, they have been able to increase
their market performance (DATE, 2015).
Summary table of their revenue
They have several units in various parts of the New Zealand and Australia. Their revenue
summary table has been given below:
Business Units Revenue (AUD $ in million) Net Profit
SGIO 47.9 10%
Lumley Insurance 40 7.5%
CGU insurance 15 2.5%
SGIC insurance 15.25 3.5%
NZI 22.5 3.7%
AMI 25.25 2.5%
NZI Thailand 34 12.5%
AmAssurance 20 7.5%
Safety Insurance 12 8.5%
Insurance Australia group is doing very good business and have been earning higher revenues
over the years. There overall revenue for the year 2017 has been 11.8 billion AUD with the
net income of around 929 million AUD. This gets possible because of the performance of its
subsidiaries (Buchmueller et al, 2013). All their subsidiaries in different parts of the world are
performing very well. It is very clear from their revenue and profit margins they have made
in their business (Chang, 2011). With the powerful resources and subsidiaries that they have
they can easily make their mark in the industry and hence a higher profits can be
ensured(Suriadi, et. al., 2013). Few of their alliance partners are performing better than the

Strategic management 10
company itself and hence they have a strong support from various partners (Kumar et al,
2011). This will help them in increasing their revenue in the coming years as well as it will
assist the firm in coming at the top in the intense competitive environment that is present in
the Insurance industry.This will also help in their expansion process as they will have a huge
financial base (Kang, 2013).
Diversification of Insurance Australia Group
This company is known for its large range of diversified products. This has helped them in
capturing the larger part of the market (McWilliams and Siegel, 2011). Most of their
diversified products are available in the field of general insurance where they are offering
insurance for various types of products (DATE, 2013). Their diversification is not restricted
to the products but they have a diversified range of subsidiaries that are offering various types
of services to their clients (Smith, 2016). This has also helped them in making a diversified
distribution channel that is capable of fulfilling the demands of their huge customer base.
They have invested a lot in the recent years towards the insurance related to different types of
products (Rothaermel, 2015).
With their subsidiaries in Asian region, they are becoming one of the biggest insurance
providers in this region (Mazzarol, Limnios & Reboud, 2013). It some of the Asian countries
they are the leaders in the market. There diversified products includes many types of general
insurance, commercial insurance, vehicle insurance as well as contents insurance
(Weerawardena and Mavondo, 2011). They have been able to capture the market base with
the help of their subsidiaries. All their diversified products are capable of solving the needs of
the large market base having people from different financial backgrounds (Joly,Feze and
Simard, 2013). All their products have helped them ensuring higher customer satisfaction.
They have been poor in collecting data regarding the industry. It has made their business
process more complex and they have been poor in adding products to their portfolio (Coff
and Kryscynski, 2011). This can be seen by the fact that they have still not invested in the
health insurance which is considered to be one of the biggest business in the coming years
(Abel et al, 2011). This has somehow slowed down the business process for the company.
Their research labs would have helped them in creating new kinds of products and the
number of investments that they are making in various fields is also high (Benn and Dunphy,
2013).

Strategic management 11
Their diversification needs to be in the current services they are offering like they must
provide the vehicle insurance for different people in different sections of the society. They
are not only making changes in their product range but are also making changes in the
products they are offering especially in terms of returns they are making (Flynn, 2016).
Product development is the type of diversification strategy it is using (Asgharian, Dadfar and
Brege, 2012). This can be understood by the fact that even one type of insurance has various
kinds of divisions. For the people that are from different salary groups can avail different
kinds of Insurance services from the range of services they are offering (Erdorf et al, 2013).
There are few business units that are related constraints while there are some which are un-
related. Related constraints means the business units that acts in the same business while the
business units that is operational in other parts of the country is known to be as the unrelated
constraints. The business units that are related constraints of the firm are NMRA Insurance
Group Finance Ltd., NMRA Insurance Funding, Insurance Australia Funding 2007 Ltd., The
Buzz Insurance Pty Limited, Swann Insurance, Mutual Community General Insurance
Proprietary limited, Westcourt General Insurance Broker Pty Ltd., CGU-VACC Insurance
Ltd., CGU Insurance Australia Limited, Insurance Manufacturers Of Australia Pty Limited,
WFI Insurance Limited, Equity Insurance Group, SGIO, State Insurance, AMI Insurance,
SGIC, NZI, CGU Insurance, Pt. Asuransi Parolamas, ERS DGB Limited, IAG International
Pty Limited, Accident & Health International Underwriting Pty Ltd.,IAG Re Labuan (L)
Berhad, Royal & SunAlliance (Thailand) Limited, Belves Investment Limited,WFI Dormant
Pty Ltd. On the other hand some of their unrelated constraints are Iag & Nrma
Superannuation Pty Limited,China Automobile Association, Strata Unit Underwriting
Agency Pty Ltd., IAG Asset Management Ltd., Beijing Continental Automobile Association
Ltd., Logan Consultants Limited, Photosecure (NZ) Limited, Sitrof Australia Limited.
Conclusion
After considering the above facts, it can be said that strategic evaluation is the tool which
help in determining the future strategies of the company and also provide guidance to the
company to conduct its operations in future. There are number of factors which affect the
operations of the business directly, and these factors are comprised into two parts that are
internal factors and external factors. It is necessary for the company to evaluate all these
factors for the purpose of ensuring effective strategic plans and decisions. IAG is considered

Strategic management 12
as the strong company in the world of insurance group and this company holds number of
competitive advantages. Strong market base is the first and most important competitive
advantage which is possessed by the organization over its competitors and this advantage
helps the organization in building strong relationship with the customers. Strong and
respected subsidiaries are also considered as biggest competitive advantage of this group.

Strategic management 13
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