Being customer focused and outward looking makes up the vision that binds together the operations of Catholic Church Insurance (CCI). The organisation isn’t too bothered about being the biggest in its industry, rather it is strongly focused on ensuring that the Catholic Church and its community are aware of the risks out there and that they’re protected against them. “We are very interested in making sure we take a clear view of who our core clients are, and that is the Catholic Church and the community,” Roberto Scenna, the CEO of CCI, says. “And we take an approach that we will always safeguard them against any risks that may come up. If CCI can do that all on its own then that’s fantastic, and if it needs to do that with the assistance of some other insurance partners that’s great too. As long as the vision remains outward and altruistic and is less about our business and more about the core clients we seek to serve.”
Supporting the church and its community
Roberto — a senior executive with more than two decades worth of experience in financial services, management consulting and aviation — joined CCI in September 2015. His first task was to get familiar with the company’s operations, understand its purpose of supporting the church and community and to see where it sat strategically. “I found the company was, and still is, operationally robust,” he explains. “However, I uncovered that the big dilemma for us was that we were a very large player in a very specific client segment (the Catholic Church) and this posed several growth challenges. Growth is really important if we are to effectively support and serve the church and community, so, working with the board and stakeholders, we determined a strategy for the next three years to make this a priority.
“That was really the first thing, looking at our strategic growth and that took up probably the first six months of my time. In the interim there were some other changes I made. We had a senior leadership team that had no women so I immediately brought three females onto the team of eight members. I’m a big advocate of women in leadership. Then there were a few smaller, more tactical things.”
A highly diversified general insurance and financial services provider
CCI has a long history. It was founded in 1911 and is one of the oldest insurance companies in Australia. Fast forward to today and it is a highly diversified general insurance and financial services provider, working with church institutions and the broader community. Its product portfolio includes property, liability and workers’ compensation, as well as motor vehicle, and investment management services. CCI has roughly 250 employees who all understand and uphold the organisation’s overarching purpose. “That’s one advantage of having been around for more than 100 years,” Roberto notes.
‘We pay out on 98.8 per cent of claims’
The second element is the great deal of knowledge the company has accumulated over the years. “We know our core clients incredibly well and we are focused on current issues as well as emerging issues for this particular demographic of people,” he says. “There’s an enormous amount of goodwill and a caring type of culture in the company. We’re very focused on doing the right thing. For instance, we pay out on 98.8 per cent of claims. The way we see it is that when there is a claim to pay, we will look for why we should pay it rather than the reasons why we shouldn’t pay it, while of course doing the right things from a regulatory perspective.”
Roberto’s strategy going forward is threefold. First, CCI wants to enhance its proposition to clients. That means developing new models to connect with them such as easy-to-use digital portals, coming up with solutions that are focused on clients’ future needs, and working proactively and consistently with some of the more prominent customers to get them involved in the end solution. Furthermore, CCI wants to build the organisational capability not only around systems, but also around people. This will in turn develop an enhanced experience for clients and further reinforce relationships.
The second part of the strategy is to expand and to look at new ways to grow. “For this we are looking at areas that we haven’t focused strongly enough on in the past, including aged care and tertiary education,” Roberto says.
Giving back
The third area is to give back to the church and community. “That includes developing a charitable foundation to provide grants back into the Catholic community and, where it’s operationally feasible and commercially right to do so, procuring services from the Catholic community — anything from property to technology.”
Roberto adds that staying on top of what’s happening with the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is also a big priority. “Making sure we’re doing the right thing by not only those insured in the church, but also claims by the victims of sexual abuse, is extremely important,” he says.
For CCI to continue to grow, Roberto believes that a strong culture needs to be instilled in the workplace, diversity needs to be embraced, and the organisation needs to stay focused on its overarching vision to be a trusted advisor to clients. “I find the people working at CCI fascinating; they’re just really good people,” he says. “Culturally and in a value sense, they are in tune with one another and really proud to work here. That’s one of the things I love most about my job. The second thing is the privilege of working in an organisation that provides insurance services for a key client that has a very long and rich history. I believe CCI has done a lot of great things throughout its existence for the Catholic Church and wider community.”