Insurance markets rarely stand in isolation and in today’s interconnected world they all have some level of exposure to one another.
An important ingredient in how local markets develop in the coming years will be their ability to take expertise from the Group best practices and implement it into their own propositions in a way that reflects specific local needs and cultural differences.
In 1992, Masahito Hirai began his career with Tokio Marine Group and, since then, he’s worked for Group companies in six different countries. Today, he serves as CEO and Director of Tokio Marine Asia.
Here, he gives an insight into some of the different business cultures he’s experienced during his corporate career and why the global perspective he’s developed is something he relies upon in his current role.
Masahito Hirai, CEO and Director, Tokio Marine Asia, Executive Officer, Tokio Marine Holdings, Inc.
Can you detail where you have worked during your career with the Group and how has your experience of working in various countries helped you in your own professional development?
In 1992, I began my career in a marketing role in Japan. The Group offered a study programme to encourage people to learn new languages and expand their experience of overseas markets. I secured a place on this programme and for a year studied economics and Portuguese in Brazil.
For the next seven years, I was the Marketing Director for Tokio Marine Seguradora SA in Brazil, before making a move to the US, where I served at Tokio Marine North America Services (TMNAS) for three years, as a Corporate Planning Officer/VP.
Then I moved to Tokio Marine Asia, Singapore, where I spent a year as a Corporate Officer.
The next move took me to Tokio Marine Mexico where I worked on a turnaround project for three years as CEO, followed by another three years spent in TMNAS.
These roles led to another turnaround project, but this time at Tokio Marine Insurans (Malaysia), where I was Deputy CEO for four years, before I was honoured to begin serving as CEO of Tokio Marine Asia since January 2022.
During my career, diversity, equality and inclusion have become increasingly prominent in corporate life. In my experience, first-hand exposure to people makes it easier to be culturally responsive to their values.
Working with different people has helped me understand how societal factors such as living environments and personal backgrounds can shape people just as much as cultural factors. My hope is that in my professional life this helps me to reach open-minded conclusions and make judgements that are fair and reasonable.
Tokio Marine Group offers global career opportunities for its people. Can you explain a little more about how this works in practice and the philosophy that underpins it?
In Japan, long-term employment with a company is still standard. The internal rotation system provides people with opportunities to gain experience of varied disciplines and cultures through different job assignments within the same organisation.
The philosophy is that if the company can give a broad range of opportunities and experiences to its employees, it will help them develop their personal skills and enable to add value to the business and its clients. It also helps to build a strong bond between the Group and its people and this, consequently, strengthens business’s ability to serve clients and communities.
As a multi-national organisation, the Group gets the opportunity to learn from best practice in each of its local markets and replicate it in others. It is difficult to properly understand and transfer best practice through desktop research alone. Personal experience of such practices makes it easier to see how they could be implemented in other markets and to identify the small adjustments needed to make them successful in a different territory.
From a leadership perspective, developing a wide global network gives individuals a broader support framework and this also assists senior executive teams in developing a wider range of global leadership competences.
How difficult is it to create and maintain a consistent culture across Tokio Marine Asia companies and what value do you think Tokio Marine Group brings to the local businesses and markets?
Tokio Marine Asia comprises eight P&C Insurance companies and four Life Insurance companies in eight countries and employs more than 10,000 people across its markets.
The international nature of Tokio Marine Asia gives it a broad base of experience and expertise in different markets. The business can take its knowledge of one local market to enhance and develop what it has to offer in another.
If the leadership team is culturally mindful, it can quickly and successfully implement new products and processes across different geographies. This enhances the product and service offering available to clients across these areas.
Business can also improve its operational efficiency and service proposition by identifying best practices in individual locations and then implementing them within the Group.
By getting an access to Group expertise and resources, local operations can develop faster, and it makes it harder for local competitors to catch up with the solutions and services, offered by the local companies; and this, as a result, enhances customer experience.
From what you have seen during the course of your international career, what strategies work well to bring people together and empower them to work towards a shared purpose?
Despite the cultural differences, majority of the underlying human values are very similar across countries. The challenge for the leader is to stay sensitive to cultural differences and be clear and consistent on purpose, goals and strategies.
At a practical level, this entails creating well-defined aims and providing open and clear communication, planning business strategies thoroughly and setting up effective project teams, empowering people through delegating authority to the appropriate individuals and working carefully to a plan/do/check/act (PDCA) cycle.
No matter what culture or background people come from, teams generate the best results when they’re supported in working collaboratively towards a well-defined, common goal.
How important do you believe such a shared purpose is for companies and their clients in today’s market?
Operating in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment creates many challenges. One way to mitigate the potential impact of these variable factors is to ensure that teams across the business are working towards a shared purpose.
Having such a shared purpose makes it possible to maximise the potential within the business and to ensure teams throughout the Group are moving in the same direction and building a product and service offering that provides additional value to the client on a continuous basis.
Access to a broad range of cultural and commercial experiences empowers leadership teams to create a shared purpose that works for the benefit of society and clients, as well as the Group and its people.
