Ep202 Kate Markham Hiscox: Do More, Do it Better, Do it Cheaper

Today’s guest has one of the biggest jobs in the London Market.

Kate Markham is CEO of Hiscox London Market and the last time we spoke she had just brought her business unit through a remediation strategy that was beginning to bear fruit.

Eighteen months later, and the results have been stellar.

Today the best are looking to invest and grow and get out on the front foot and lean into the opportunities that a still very strong market has to offer.

And this podcast is all about that. This is a business very much looking to the future.

Our conversation came about because Hiscox has been one of the first to experiment with artificial intelligence to help speed up and enhance the lead underwriting process and so I wanted to dig right into the detail of what Kate and her teams had done and what the results had been like.

So we spend much of this discussion going deep into this and examining where the next steps are going to lead. It’s a very heartening and positive message.

Underwriters aren’t going to be out of a job because they will be freed up to add real value in the assessment of risk and to enhance the service that they give brokers and innovate to improve the relevance and quality of the cover that can give their ultimate customers.

The emergence of a fully connected digital value chains is also going to make it much easier for a much larger share of world business to access the London Market.

After all if underwriters make it really simple to send something to London, and turnarounds are almost instant, why wouldn’t many more brokers seek quotes?

Kate is full of energy and enthusiasm and our conversation is fun and rattles along at a fast pace.

Kate is also one of those leaders who has the gift of instilling confidence in the people they come in contact with and this podcast put a spring in my step about the quality of the London Market’s future if it can grasp the unique opportunities it is currently presented with

I got a lot out of this chat and I think you will too.

NOTES:
I let the abbreviation D&F get through. It stands for Direct and Facultative and is big-ticket property business.

LINKS:
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:
https://www.advantagego.com/