‘New Technologies Give You New Approaches for Risk Management'

ICICI Lombard’s MD and CEO Bhargav Dasgupta on why there cannot be a standard solution for all clients and the need to make employees sensitive to emerging risks

- Sarabjeet Sen & Yash Jain

Insurance is all about risk and making good any loss caused by various risks. But what if exposures to those risks are managed and minimised by both insurers and the insured joining hands to find solutions? It will be a win-win situation for both. “Risk management has become absolutely critical for the insurance business,” says Bhargav Dasgupta, MD and CEO, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited.

Dasgupta has been steering ICICI Lombard away from the traditional ways of looking at risk alleviation and shift to more active collaboration with clients. “From around 2012, we started working on risk management and mitigation. Traditionally, we used to send our risk engineers to understand the underlying risk in an asset and decide whether to add some terms and conditions, warranties etc to mitigate the risk because the pricing was fixed. That is a limited approach. The better way is to say, ‘Can we now work with you to improve the underlying risks’,” he says. “We come up with customised solutions for our client. We have to work with the client with the solution mindset, understand the problem and give a solution. You cannot have a cookie-cutter approach and say this is a standard solution for all clients,” adds Dasgupta.

Tech adoption

ICICI Lombard’s tryst with using technology for risk mitigation started 6-7 years ago, triggered by marine transit losses for a few FMCG and pharmaceutical clients. The insurer looked at the clients’ claims data, analysed the problem and realised that thefts were happening in certain segments of the market. It then came up with tracking mechanisms.