Lessons for private insurers from LIC’s long-term success

There is no excitement on any front and all the noise regarding too many regulatory interventions has died down. The half-yearly results, as on September 12, do not give any indication of a once-booming industry bouncing back. Some kind of uncertainty is pervading the whole atmosphere.

Those who used to speak of the advent of a new era have withdrawn themselves from the limelight. This is, of course, a very unfortunate situation for an industry vital to the economy and these developments reflect the truth, whatever be the sporadic announcements from Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi regarding inducing growth through various strategic decisions. At this juncture of dilemma, it will be worthwhile to look at the inherent strengths of India’s largest insurer — Life Insurance Corporation — as this behemoth has not only survived the liberalisation, but has also regained its market share after initially losing nearly 50% to the private sector.

Today, LIC is not only the market leader, but also, to the utter disbelief of the experts who predicted a huge erosion in its ability to protect its turf in the face of innovative products and state-of-the-art service standards being introduced by the private players, the public sector organisation has conceded just over 1% average market share to the 23 private sector players. Interesting, isn’t it?

On Diwali, an old colleague shared his experience that out of nearly 100 SMSs of greetings that he

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