In 2019, we wish to stay simple and agile

One year after being appointed Managing Director of the French branch of Liberty Specialty Markets, Richard Deguettes explains his strategy for France, and Liberty's ambitions and objectives for 2019.

What were your observations when taking the reins of Liberty in May 2018?

When I joined Liberty, I was quickly impressed by the commitment and professionalism of the teams, at all levels of the organisation. Relationships between employees were strong, which positively influenced the service provided to our customers and our third-party partners. The second observation was the desire to be simple and agile and the strong need to remain so. It’s a differentiator among our competitors who are dealing with complexity in their organisation.

How is your business portfolio in France made up today?

In addition to the reinsurance business, we have a balanced and diversified commercial insurance portfolio. Our turnover, growing by 23% over the first part of the year, is divided into four areas on which we have exceeded our objectives. 40% comes from Financial Lines, 30% from General, Professional and Environmental Liability lines, 20% from so-called First Party lines (Energy, Terrorism and Political Violence, Fine Art, Cancellation Insurance and Special Risks, Transport) and 10% from Credit, Political Risks and Guarantee lines.

You have put a lot of energy and dynamism into Liberty since your arrival. How did you do it?

For those who know me, energy is part of my character. I spend a lot of time on internal communication.

We have a team with excellent skills and they have reacted superbly to this new energy, which has been received positively in the market. We are receiving more and more market requests, our performance ratios are increasing and customer retention is strong. There are very few internal politics at Liberty. When an internal atmosphere is healthy it is felt externally. Kadidja Sinz our European Manager is watching over us and it is a precious asset. Regarding the outside world, we have also communicated more about our product offering and met our customers and our broker partners more regularly.

Finally, we rely heavily on recruitment to support our growth.

What are your goals for 2019? What projects will you carry out at Liberty France? And on which areas do you want to focus to meet these objectives?

Our goals for 2019 are simple. We want to continue to grow profitably across all of our product lines. In 2019 we are aiming for double-digit growth, an objective that we will probably exceed given our start to the year. We are in a constantly changing market, hence the need to constantly adapt.

To do this, we have three fundamental focuses:

• For major risks, we aim to establish international programs for which we are well equipped. We wish to be an alternative to an increasingly "one size fits all" market which no longer recognises each insured on its own merits in terms of quality, risk or prevention.
• In the Middle Market and SME markets, we are working on product innovation, packaging of guarantees as well as distribution methods.
• Finally, we wish to capitalise on our newly established specialties such as Terrorism and Political Violence, Fine Art, Political Risk and Credit, Event Cancellation Insurance and Special Risks which offer opportunities for innovation and combination with other important products.