Dear Readers

We wish you a very Happy New Year!

Globally it is a challenging year ahead and fiscal prudence, innovative approaches, leaner and more efficient business processes focused on growth and even laughter have been recommended as remedies. At NJI we have started with innovation and launched yet another product – Family Sehat Care to tap individuals who need personal health cover. Its full story is on pages 4 and 5.

We also continue to explore non-conventional distribution channels and once again had success at our stall at an exhibition as detailed on the page across.

Being mindful that today’s reader also likes to interact with what he reads, we have couple of quizzes on pages 12 and 13 where you may like to assess your skills. We leave rest of the discoveries as you turn the pages!

Thank you for your continued interest.

NJI’s Success at Dawn’s Life Styles Exhibition

by DM Nida Jawad

NJI participated in DAWN’s Life Styles Exhibition held over the weekend of 19-21 December 2008 in Karachi. It was a Mega event for Karachiites attracting families from all income-groups. NJI was the only general insurance company to participate in the exhibition.

Considering the current uncertainties in the country, NJI promoted insurance protection, catering to the needs of different people. The main focus at the exhibition was on our consumer products, viz SelfCare, ShopCare, HomeCare, Family SehatCare, ViaCare, AllCare, and Kashtkar insurance was also promoted.

Our young officers interacted most successfully in creating public awareness about NJI to a cross-section of visitors: salaried persons, housewives, school and college students and also corporate executives interested in corporate products. In an innovative manner a customer database was also created through lucky draw participation, and winners were given NJI’s promotional items.

The overwhelming response by the visitors at the Exhibition has enthused our officers to participate in similar events in future, with more innovative approaches.

NJI helped Celebrate Universal Children’s Day
Children at The Citizens Foundation schools were sent prizes and certificates in response to NJI competition that they participated in. The spirit of the day is captured below with some of the children against an interesting backdrop created by the School for the occasion.

NJI’s representation at IAP
Insurance Association of Pakistan held its annual election recently, at which NJI secured the following positions:

• Executive Director-Finance Mr Atiq Anwar Mahmudi, Member, Executive Committee
• Joint Executive Vice President Mr Muhammad Ikram, Member, Lahore Regional Committee
• Joint Executive Vice President Mr Azfar Arshad, Chairman, Accident Sectional Committee
• Joint Executive Vice President Mr Mohammed Safdar, Chairman, Fire Sectional Committee
• Joint Executive Vice President Mr Brendan T D’Lima, Vice Chairman, Marine Sectional Committee

We wish them all a successful tenure.

New face for our Multan Zonal Office

NJI Launches Family Sehat Care

With the looming threat of global recession compounded by spiraling inflation playing havoc in the lives of the common man, an unforeseen medical eventuality can be an onus too heavy to bear for a large segment of the populace. In such instances, particularly for those with limited resources, timely and affordable medical help is the need of the hour.

New Jubilee Insurance, the pioneer of health insurance in Pakistan, and one of the leading players in corporate health insurance for over two decades, is widely recognised for its innovations in the field of Consumer Insurance, so that today it stands as the number one choice for many individuals. Rising to the challenge once again, New Jubilee Insurance Company now introduces the solution to take care of the financial burden one may go through in times of a medical emergency, through its new product, Family Sehat Care.

Recently launched at a local hotel in Karachi, and soon to be introduced in Lahore and Islamabad, Family Sehat Care is designed to provide health insurance to individuals such as retailers, self employed small businessmen, shopkeepers to name a few, and their spouses and dependent children. With a variable age of entry between 21 years to 55 years, and available in three different plans: Silver, Gold, and Platinum, Family Sehat Care covers hospitalisation related to sickness and accidents in the range of Pakistan Rupees 100,000 to 350,000 per annum per person at an affordable price with a view to reach out to a wide spectrum of income groups.

Primarily covering hospitalisation expenses, a planned admission or surgery through timely intimation, can be arranged on credit at any of the hospitals on NJI’s Panel. Through this facilitation, the insured can avail the services of the hospital for covered expenses without having to pay cash upfront thus doing away with the hassle of arranging money for the admission, filing a claim, and waiting for settlement cheques. Additionally, the flexible nature of the product covers certain expenses with no condition of hospitalisation such as daycare surgeries, accidental out-patient expenses, out-patient expenses before and after hospitalisation, and specific expensive diagnostic tests as MRI / CT Scan, Thallium Scan and Endoscopy; thus offering choice and convenience to the insured.

Backed by a team of qualified doctors, experienced underwriters and servicing personnel, the Family Sehat Care team assists the insureds in availing quality medical care at a controlled cost thereby facilitating maximum utilisation of their benefits in the most efficient manner. Carefully tailored to suit the budgets of different strata of the population, and topped with added features such as family discounts and no claim bonus, NJI’s Family Sehat Care stands out as an unbeatable bet in the current times of food, fuel and financial crisis.

Managing Risks at Construction Site
Part I - Minimising Risk

Has anyone in your organization really stopped and analysed why your construction projects are experiencing disruptions, accidents and losses? Why workers are getting hurt in spite of safety standards, programs, policies, procedures, training and possibly everyone’s best efforts? What can be done to reduce losses, control the cost of risk and optimise the bottom line?

In construction, safety is typically treated as a discrete and separate function within the contractor’s organization. Much of what we do in safety revolves around incidents, accidents and losses. We use programs and other strategies to help us control their adverse effects. We train our workers in accordance with safety standards. We measure our success in reduced incidents and by comparing our loss data to national statistics. Our accidents and losses impact our cost of risk and ultimately our very competitiveness in a highly competitive industry.

This also may well diminish our ability to market construction services and/or secure work.

Accidents usually do not happen due to fate or intent on the worker’s part. They happen because of ineffective processes, inadequate procedures, poor planning or lack of foresight. Therefore, we must get away from the predominantly worker-focused interventions common in the industry and look into areas over which the worker has little or no control but are the underlying contributing causes of incidents and losses.

Major projects and investments present great opportunities, but also harbor risks. Entrepreneurial risk itself is not insurable, but protection against the consequences of property damage has long been provided by the insurance industry. It is frequently the case that major projects and investments are only possible if insurance cover is available.

INTRODUCTION
The construction industry is subject to more risk and uncertainty than perhaps any other industry. Yet, surprisingly, managerial techniques used to identify, analyse and respond to risks were not applied in the industry until the 80’s.

Developing risk identification, allocation and mitigation strategies are paramount for any business involved in construction. To achieve milestones and completion dates on time, everyone in the supply chain, from clients, main contractors and sub contractors, must consider contractual and non-contractual risks.

Managing and reducing the wide variety of risks involved in any project is key to its success whilst the multi-party, mega-projects throw up their own unique challenges.

MANAGING RISKS
In design and construction, risk analysis can be described as a systematic methodology and ongoing process by which occurrences that may substantially affect the end product can be identified, quantified, modeled, managed, monitored and controlled. This tool is especially useful as a method of good project management and planning, because the business of building is inherently risky—the risk mitigation methods can be applied to project cost, schedule, quality/performance, safety, and business operations, especially as construction risk increases with the size of the project. Good risk management procedures ultimately measure the team’s confidence level in the project on an ongoing basis, and allow the introduction of corrective actions, monetary contingency, and schedule float in order to minimize losses to the project and increase the likelihood of the project being completed on schedule and within budget.

The application of risk management procedures in construction can give early visibility to potential “problem areas” and opportunities, where effort and money can be expended early in the design and construction phases to reduce vulnerability, insurance costs, business or mission interruption, and claims. Early risk identification ensures that design and team effort is concentrated in critical areas, focusing the project team’s attention on actions and resources where there is a major risk exposure, or where the greatest time/cost savings can be made through reengineering and streamlined project management.

The objective is proactive management of projects, where problems are reduced as they are identified, as differentiated from the traditional approach to construction, which waits until critical problems develop and then implements an immediate (and typically expensive) response which may reduce the impact to the project but likely does not avoid losses as effectively as early risk response. Over time, risk management allows the project team to build a historical profile of risk based upon experience and lessons learned, which will allow for better management of future projects.

Risk management is an organized method of identifying and measuring risk and then developing, selecting, implementing and managing options for addressing risks. There are several types of risk that the project management team should consider as part of risk management methodology.

IDENTIFICATION OF CONSTRUCTION RISKS
Risk Identification ascertains which risks have the potential of affecting the project and documenting the risks’ characteristics. Risk Identification begins after the Risk Management Plan is constructed and continues iteratively throughout the project execution. The Risk Identification process naturally progresses into the Qualitative Risk Analysis or the Quantitative Risk Analysis Process. Sometimes it is wise to include the identification of a risk and its response in order for it to be included in Risk Response Planning.

The inputs to the Risk Identification Process are:
• The Project Management Plan
• Risk Management Plan
• Assignment of roles and responsibilities
• Budget provisions for risk-management activities
• Schedule for risk management
• Categories of risk
• Project Scope Statement
• Organizational process assets
• Enterprise environmental factors

After gathering all necessary inputs, it is tie to employ the recommended tools and techniques of risk identification. The tools and techniques are:
• Brainstorming
• Delphi technique
• Interviewing
• Root cause identification
• Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT)
analysis
• Checklist analysis
• Assumptions analysis
• Diagramming techniques
• System or process flow charts
• Influence diagrams
• Physical Inspection of site
• Fault Tree Analysis
• HAZOP study, etc

Few of the common risks associated with construction sites are as follows:
• Fire
• Explosion
• Natural Calamity (Earth quake, Flood, Storm etc.)
• Strike/Riots/Civil Commotion/Terrorism
• Danger to health/life (Personal)
• Loss of Equipment
• Damage to Material
• Damage to property under construction/erection
• Loss of future earnings (profits/sales/rents etc)
• Risk of design failure/fault
• Manufacturer’s risk
• Trial test risk
• Delay in supplies
• Damage to existing property
• Damage to third party (property/bodily)

A Career in Insurance

What made you choose insurance as a career?
In mid-1980s I was a mother of three young children giving private tuitions to O Level students to make ends meet, when a friend suggested I could apply in her company where they were selecting trainee officers. Though feeling grateful for this offer I was hesitant about a full-time job considering my young children. To my surprise I scored the highest among those who gave written test taken by Adamjee Insurance and Mr Mohammed Choudhury, their Managing Director offered me a job. My mother kindly offered to take care of the children and I accepted. Rest, as they say, is history.

You are noted for giving good grounding to new employees. How do you plan and execute this on-job-training, will you share with us.
As you know my first love is teaching and when I joined NJI in 1989 I had to train whoever was available to run a viable branch operation. However as I look back I feel great satisfaction in having coached and groomed colleagues at the branch to several levels above than when they came to me: A peon into a clerk, a telephone operator into an underwriter and a marketing officer into an underwriter/marketing officer who today heads a branch in another insurance company. All-in-all it has been a pleasurable challenge.

What has been your most challenging underwriting experience? Can you describe it?
Getting a client has not been as difficult for me as getting Head Office to agree to competitive rates to attract the client. I had to negotiate with exhaustive details of a client, his future business growth potential leading to increased business for NJI to get a competitive rate and Al Hamdo Lillah the client has realised the expected business growth
giving credence to my professional acumen.

By the same token, what has been the most difficult claim settlement that you faced.
There was this agent who brought me a mix of business in 2003-2004, comprising various businesses and a beach hut. The client was covered for all his risks for a year and following year also renewed. It was then that I got distress signal from the head office that the beach hut insurance can be problematic. I assured them the business was with us for a year and there was no claim. Barely had I said this and a claim for rain-water damage to the hut was lodged! I was stumped at first but braced myself to face the client with detailed information and convinced him that the damage was from sea-water as it was to the lower walls of his hut that were damaged. My anxiety dissipated when I found him agreeable and surprised when he withdrew the claim and even offered to give more business to NJI. I can only say that it was thorough preparation, knowledge of the subject and putting my best communication skills forward that I saved the day!

What in your opinion will propel the insurance industry in Pakistan forward?
We need regulations to survive. Look where the banking sector is in the West, selling with abandon. Rates need to be more stable than ever before. Also, sound insurance knowledge to facilitate good practices.

are the weaknesses that need to be plugged?
Our sales agents need to stop being mere contact points but become knowledgable of products they intend to sell. They also need to acquire understanding of basic underwriting principles. Insurance profession will then gain more respect.

Would you like to give a message to prospective insurance professionals?
As globally there is more moral hazard, an aspiring insurance professional should have required insurance qualification and sincerity of purpose to underwrite prudently, because success in insurance business is on the strength of what was sold.

Learning Culture

In-House

NJI Certificate of Insurance - Level II
Interest and participation of 30 officers from Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad took them to Level II of the in-house- developed Insurance Certificate. Optional written test was taken by them, of whom six scored above 80% marks and in all 24 officers moved to Level III which will cover subjects such as Risk Management, Reinsurance, Use of Alternate Distribution Channels and Technology to sell insurance.

Tax Concepts
In-house session was conducted by JEVP-Nawaid Jamal on Basic Concepts of Taxation for Individuals and Corporate
which evoked lot of interest from the participants.

At Training Institutes

Our officers gained diverse learning on:
• NET Web Tools
• Credit Collection Dynamics
• Disaster Recovery Managment
• Fire Fighting Course
• Time Management
• Cost Reduction Strategies
• Management Skills for Executive Secretaries
• Understanding Business Finance

and tttended conferences on:
• Power Generation
• Global Financial Meltdown
• Best Practices Day
• MAP’s Annual Management Convention

At Mohammad Ali Jinnah University (MAJU)
Our Managing Director Mr Tahir Ahmed was invited by the MAJU to speak to their students regarding Pakistan insurance industry, highlighting its performance and challenges. It was an interactive session raising awareness and interest in insurance profession.

Bennis’ Leadership Qualities
While learning is gaining ground at NJI, picking up some concepts from the newsmagazine is also seen as an opportunity. Warren Bennis, widely known as a modern leadership guru, has identified six personal qualities for good leadership which maybe learning some.

Integrity: Integrity means alignment of words and actions with inner values. It means sticking to these values even when an alternative path may be easier or more advantageous. A leader with integrity can be trusted and will be admired for sticking to strong values. They also act as a powerful model for people to copy, thus building an entire organisation with powerful and effective cultural values.

Dedication: Dedication means spending whatever time and energy on a task is required to get the job done, rather than giving it whatever time you have available. The work of most leadership positions is not something to do ‘if time’. It means giving your whole self to the task, dedicating yourself to success and to leading others with you.

Magnanimity: A magnanimous person gives credit where it is due. It also means being gracious in defeat and allowing others who are defeated to retain their dignity. Magnanimity in leadership includes crediting the people with success and accepting personal responsibility for failures.

Humility: Humility is the opposite of arrogance and narcissism. It means recognising that you are not inherently superior to others and consequently that they are not inferior to you. It does not mean diminishing yourself, nor does it mean exalting yourself. Humble leaders do not debase themselves, neither falsely nor due to low self-esteem. They simply recognise all people as equal in value and know that their position does not make them a god.

Openness: Openness means being able to listen to ideas that are outside one’s current mental models, being able to suspend judgement until after one has heard someone else’s ideas. An open leader listens to their people without trying to shut them down early, which at least demonstrates care and builds trust. Openness also treats other ideas as potentially better than one’s own ideas. In the uncertain world of new territory, being able to openly consider alternatives is an important skill.

Creativity: Creativity means thinking differently, being able to get outside the box and take a new and different viewpoint on things. For a leader to be able to see a new future towards which they will lead their followers, creativity provides the ability to think differently and see things that others have not seen, and thus giving reason for followers to follow.

PC Basics !

We all use computers most hours of our working day. Some attention to hand placement on keyboard and mouse is desirable for good health of our hands.

On the Keyboard: hands should be straight and wrist should not be bent up or down but in relaxed middle position. Also, keyboard ought to be kept at elbow height or slightly lower for comfortable use.

Holding the mouse: Wrist ought to rest comfortably and fingers spread over the mouse naturally with thumb at side of mouse, with a relaxed grip. Also ensure that the mouse and keyboard are within 10 inches distance to make an easy switch from keyboard to mouse.

Frequent breaks: Give your hands and wrists a break by gently stretching and bending them. Doing alternate tasks also provide relief.

How Good am I at Giving Feedback

For each of the following pairs, identify the statement that most closely matches what you normally do when you give feedback to someone on his or her job performance

1a Describe the behaviour
1b Evaluate the behaviour

2a Focus on the feelings that the behaviour evokes
2b Tell the person what he or she should be doing differently

3a Give specific instances of the behaviour
3b Generalise

4a Deal only with behaviour that the person can control
4b Sometimes focus on something the person can do nothing about

5a Tell the person as soon as possible after the behaviour
5b Sometimes wait too long

6a Focus on the effect the behaviour has on me
6b Try to figure out why the individual did what he or she did

7a Balance negative feedback with positive feedback
7b Sometimes focus only on the negative

8a Do some soul-searching to make sure that the reason I am giving the feedback is to help the other person or to strengthen our relationship
8b Sometime give feedback to punish, win against, or dominate the other person

FEEDBACK:

The “a” responses are your self-perceived strengths and the “b” responses are your self-perceived weaknesses. By looking at the proportion of your a and b responses, you will be able to see how effective you feel you are when giving performance feedback and to determine where your strengths and weaknesses lie. For instance, an a/b ratio of 8/0, 7/1, or 6/2 suggests relatively strong feedback skills. In contrast, ratios of 3/5. 2/6, 1/7, or 0/8 indicate significant self-perceived weaknesses that can be improved upon.

TIME QUADRANTS:

DO IT: 1 , 5 START IT: 3, 4 & 7

DELEGATE IT: 2, 6 LEAVE IT: 8, 9

DO IT – is important and urgent, therefore you do it now and yourself. You cannot delegate it

START IT – it is not urgent but important and therefore you make a beginning but may complete later. You cannot delegate this job

DELEGATE IT - It appears urgent but can be done equally well by your junior, so delegate it. This will give you more time to do above category jobs

LEAVE IT – these jobs you have been doing by habit, but can be easily dropped and nothing will be affected

Time Quadrants

Asim has the following “To Do” list on Monday morning. Place his jobs in appropriate boxes above and check the outcome on page 12

1 There has been a major claim and your boss needs statistics to support his discussion with the client
2 Your colleague has had a fall and needs to be taken to a hospital
3 Your boss is planning to visit a prospective client and has asked you to gather some information
4 You need to re-organise your work system to be more efficient
5 There has been a fire and you need to appoint a surveyor
6 HR Department is pressing for leave details of your department
7 HR department is asking for appraisal of your subordinate
8 Replies to text messages / circulated emails
9 Maintaining registers started by your department, to maintain continuity of system

35-years service: Mr Ghulam Hussain, Administration Department, HO

25-years service: from Accounts Department: Mr Syed Amin. Administration Department: Mr Mohammed Zaman, Mr Shafiq Ahmed, Mr Israr Ahmed, Mr M Mehmood Hussain and Mr Muhammad Islam. Claims Department: Mr Aslam Ahmed and Mr M Amin Aziz. Corporate Division: Mr A Rasheed H Ebrahim and Mr Muhammad Salamuddin. Operations Department: Mr Gul Akber Khan. Plaza Branch: Mr Muhammad Mushtaq, Mr Muhammad Ashraf and Mr Muhammad Azim. Reinsurance Department: Mr Ghous Mohiuddin. Shahrah-e-Faisal Branch: Mr Haq Nawaz Khan.

10-years service: Executive Director-Finance: Mr Atiq A Mahmudi. Accident & Health Division: Mr Amir Ali and Mr Muhammad Ashraf. Accounts Department: Mr Fawad Shams, Mr Mohammad Ashraf and Mr Abdul Ahad Abro. Claims Department: Mr Faheem Akhtar. Commercial Unit-I: Ms Mehnaz Jaffari. Corporate Division: Mr Muhammad Altaf, Mr Jamaluddin Burney and Mr M Ilyas Qureshi. Hyderabad Branch: Mr Khalid Hameed. Internal Audit Department: Mr Habib Ali and Shaikh Muhammad Issa. IT Department: Mr Ghufranullah Khan and Mr M Adnan Jamil. Managerial Department: Azam Khan. Reinsurance Department: Mr M Imran Akhtar and Mr Brendan T D’Lima. Shahrah-e-Faisal Branch: Ms Reffat Saeed, Mr Abdul Lateef and Mr S Taqi Raza Zaidi.

NJI celebrates Eid ul Azha