CEO Insights Magazine

Founded by the legendary Sir Dorabji Tata in 1919, New India Assurance is a multinational general insurance company headquartered in Mumbai and operating in 26 countries. It was established with the vision to provide pioneering and cutting edge insurance solutions to its worldwide clientele. Over the decades, New India has turned out many top notch professionals who went on to become respected leaders and stalwarts of the industry.One amongst them is the current MD & CEO of the company's Caribbean operations, Mr. Rajeev Bhattathiripad.

Rajeev started as a probationary officer in The New India Assurance Company in 1988. Since then, he has been working in various capacities all over India, both in operational offices as well as technical departments. He has a trajectory of successfully heading the Marine Cargo Technical Department of the company which was the largest portfolio of Marine Cargo in India back then. He is currently posted to the Caribbean to head The New India Assurance Co.(Trinidad & Tobago) as its MD & CEO. An efficient and effective leader, he combines great business acumen with personal charisma to help the organization and his team achieve success. In a recent interaction with CEOInsights, Rajeev shared more about his journey. Let’s hear it from him.

What are your views on the challenges that are faced by industry leaders and the ways to overcome them? Also, what is your success mantra?

Challenges occur in all positions and situations. With experience and observation, one equips oneself to deal with each situation as it rises. In meeting challenges one important thing is the timing of the response some situations need to be left untouched till they present all facets of the problem so that you can deal with the problem in its entirety some challenges need to be left alone and they get resolved by themselves some need immediate attention and intervention or else they aggravate into serious problems. Hence timing is of utmost importance in dealing with challenges. Every situation has taught me that it is important to pay full attention to the job at hand. That makes the job complete and brings a sense of satisfaction.

My mantra is every challenge has an opportunity hidden in it the art is to spot it and make use of it.

Define The New India Assurance as an organization and its position in the market. Describe the customer experience through the delivery of your flagship offerings.
The New India Assurance is the largest non-life insurer in India. The New India Assurance Co.(Trinidad & Tobago)Ltd. is a fully owned subsidiary operating in the Caribbean since 1976 in its current form. The presence of New India in the Caribbean has been there since 1946. We have established ourselves as a respected name in the market ever since our entry here. The Company has consistently shown profit and growth and is a well-known name in the islands and Latin America where we have our operations

We deal in property, motor, miscellaneous, travel, and liability lines of insurance. We are planning to develop new products which will be tailored to suit the requirements of the market.

As the CEO, what are the factors you take into consideration to develop corporate growth strategies?
The strength of the company, the market dynamics, and opportunities in the market space are the factors that are taken into account while developing growth strategies. We are in the process of strengthening our IT system so that we can utilize the emerging AI and InsureTech ideas in our operations which will translate into better service and customer satisfaction in the days to come.

What are the traits that best describe your leadership style?
I believe in being accessible and leading from the front playing an active role in the everyday running of the organization. I choose to connect with team members, customers, and stakeholders on the frontline of the operation, this allows me to interact directly with employees thereby creating greater organizational cohesion. At the same time, I believe it is important to let the team members have space to execute their ideas. The broad plan targets need to be spelt out, but the details need to be worked out by the team. Positivity and avoiding blame games are the main traits that bring out the best in a team.

What is the future destination you are heading towards?
We plan to be one of the leading players in the Caribbean market by 2025. We plan to expand into other territories and look forward to spreading our reach further in the Caribbean.

Rajeev Bhattathiripad, MD & CEO, The New India Assurance Co
Having an M.Sc in Physics from the Institute of Science, Nagpur a degree from the Insurance Institute of India, and 34+ years of industry experience, Rajeev is currently heading The New India Assurance Company’s operations in the Caribbean as the MD & CEO.