Direct Line 1992 to 2005

I worked in several senior positions with Direct Line Group, or RBS Insurance as it became from 2003. All this period was spent working exclusively on Direct Line brand.

My roles during this period where;

1. Head of Statistics 1992-97
2. Director Of Home Insurance 1997-2000
3. Director of General Insurance 2000-2001
4. Managing Director Direct Line 2001-2005

In this period my experience included;

• Pricing Management
• Championing investment in improved pricing methods which make greater use of price elasticity models.
• Developing pricing strategies to exploit favourable conditions between 1999-2002 to grow income and profits from private car business. ( to 3m vehicles insured )
• Redesigning the pricing of Home insurance to underpin the launch in 1994 and subsequent profitably growth toward 1m customers
• Designing changes to rating systems, and management information to improve understanding of price sensitivity
• Branding and Marketing
• Developing a branding and marketing plan to improve brand disposition scores, including agreeing new creative routes, new brand guidelines
• Contributing to successful PR and public affairs campaigns covering Uninsured driving, Travel Insurance sold by Agents and Bundling of Mortgages and Home Insurance.
• Operational Effectiveness
• Member of project team that produced business case for expansion in office space & staff to support growth of business in mid 1990s. Resulted in three new offices and an additional 2,000 staff.
• Redesigning call centre staff recruitment and training processes, and implementing revised reward and recognition schemes resulting in significant reductions in staff turnover (to less than 20%) and improved scores in staff opinion surveys.
• Improving call centre efficiency through adoption of technology, e.g. voice recording, touch-tone, and improved automatic call direction. Aggregate saving c.£5m per annum.
• Redesigning home claims processes to improve service and significantly reduced costs, including centralising work from 5 regional sites to two sites, creating in-house advisors to replace external loss adjusters, and creating a front-line telephone customer service.
• Introduced training program for call centre team leaders to improve leadership skills
• Business Development
• Relaunch of Privilege and repositioning for safe drivers.
• Launching Motor Breakdown and Home Emergency.
• Closed Stakeholder Pensions business and mothballed ISA product.
• Supported the development of online sales and service platform for Direct Line
• Strategic Development
• Part of Executive team that was responsible for integrating Churchill and Green Flag businesses following their acquisition. This included
• Moving to common IT platform
• Creating group wide shared services for HR, Underwriting, and Claims Service.
• Provided advice and assistance to Direct Line overseas businesses, including being Director of Linea Directa the Spanish joint venture