Survival for Insurance Companies-Alternative Mechanisms under Cutthroat competition

          Competition stiffens. Customers get scarce. The rule of the jungle holds: survival for the fittest. This is the time most insurance firms begin to ask themselves, “how else can we survive.” Decision-making on this, of course, requires the rational process: problem identification, problem definition, formation of tentative solutions, selection of the most appropriate solution, implementation and evaluation. The only mistake that managers will commit in their search for an effective mechanism to counteract competition is to result into price reductions. Instead, insurance stakeholders should consider other positive mechanisms to foster their businesses instead of embarking into this loss making alternative.

The law of demand states clearly that supply and price are inversely proportional under the normal demand curve. Insurance services obey the normal demand curve, but do not have all the characteristics of other goods and services. What I know from observation and knowledge of great works is that this inverse proportionality spurs price wars, which are the worst enemies of the business arena. Mwaniniki Wahome, in his article, contends that cutthroat competition in the insurance industry is resulting in under-pricing tactics, thereby affecting performance of the firms, as they have to squeeze thin the margins from their deals.

It is worth noting that increase in supply of maize is seasonal; sugarcane, wheat, oil exhibits some seasonality characteristics too. These products will decrease somewhere in the region; clever customers stores them for future use since they are durable. Insurance services, however, are highly perishable; they cannot be stored for future use. This is what forced Mr. Robert Kuloba, the policy, research and development manager at IRA to argue that competition in the insurance industry has gone to pricing and the issues of undercutting are coming up. Kuloba added that when the undercutting gets severe, it goes down with many.

The number of customers available for insurance services were 38 million in the year 2009. Taking even half of this, there are approximately 20 million customers with more than 70 % probability of seeking insurance services. This is a huge catch for insurance companies! The main problem is could be there is a possibility that a larger proportion of these (including myself) are not aware of the benefits of insurance except the microseconds advertisements they view somewhere in between the news. Until recently, I used to hear the word insurance near accident scenes or after a relative has been involved in a motor accident. In fact, I was certain that insurance belonged to vehicle owners. One of the competition counteract mechanism, thus, is to educate the public about the existence and necessity of insurance covers in order to attract them into the industry.

Another milestone for insurance companies’ survival is through taking advantage of regional integration. The East Africa region is rapidly undergoing integration, and will soon have a common government. The population of more than 120 million will become one bloc. The company to put up enough infrastructures in the region will have the highest number of customers. An established business promises proximity and accessibility, the basic ingredients of business success. Therefore, instead of planning how to reduce premium prices, plan how to exploit these opportunities.

I do not see any reason for the reduction of prices. Firms should spend these finances to acquire technological advancements that can enable them to survive in the face of cutthroat competition. Advanced machinery and highly professional employees will ensure total quality management focused to customer satisfaction. This will build an empire of loyal customers, who will never leave even if the competitor offers free services. Take the example of Safaricom in its earlier stages of development. The competitors of Safaricom have even paid people to use their services, but none has succeeded to win it. In fact, Safaricom continues to raise its prices and people still stick to it. This is one of the examples that illustrate the wastefulness of excessive price reduction in the competition arena.

I am not against price reductions with the objective of accommodating the less fortunate in society. I am only concentrating on those price wars in the competitive market that are aimed at driving out competitors. At the end of the day, we shall realize that we wasted huge amounts of resources and we are out of business, courtesy of unregulated price wars. That is the time when we shall gnash our teeth and say, “we wish we could have collaborated as one industry for business survival.”