curzon lord mayors appeal samarathon

Curzon team walks 470 miles for Samaritans

5th August 20201 Minutes

Five members of the Curzon Consulting team undertook the Samarathon challenge in July.

About the Samarathon challenge

Five members of our team got involved in Samarathon, a virtual marathon organised by Samaritans that took place over July 2020. They joined The Lord Mayor’s Appeal team, to help raise funds to support charities that address some of London’s most pressing societal issues. Samaritans is one of the four amazing charities supported by The Lord Mayor’s Appeal.

Find out more about the event.

A great result

With a fantastic effort from our team, and Curzon’s pledge to match funds raised pound for pound, we have been able to raise a total of £2,600.

£2600

raised

467

miles

Curzon Consulting Partner, Doug Badham, commented:

A terrific effort for a really worthwhile cause! Huge thanks to everyone who got behind us with sponsorship

Our fund raising pages remain open, so it’s not too late to donate if you wish to.

The team are Amy Palliser, Douglas Badham, Nigel Brannan, Silviu Paraoan & Stuart Kitching.

The importance of mental health

Samaritans answer a call for help every six seconds.

Their work to support people is vitally important, particularly during coronavirus, which is difficult for many. Read Samaritans’ guidance on how to take care of your mental health during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Curzon Consulting partner is Category Judge for 2020 Soldiering On Awards

24th October 20192 Minutes

2020 Soldiering On Awards

Curzon Consulting Partner, Douglas Badham, is proud to be a Category Judge for 2020 Soldiering On Awards.

The Soldiering On Awards highlights the outstanding achievements of current and former service men and women, their families and those who support the Armed Forces Community. Now in their tenth year, the awards recognise inspirational people for achievements in education, healthcare, communities, diversity and inclusion, and business.

Douglas Badham said:

“I am an ardent supporter – for ten years these awards have shone a light on inspirational stories of immense challenges overcome, and stunning personal and business achievements”

Following a record-breaking number of nominations, the first round of judging has been carried out by the Category Judges.

Lt. Col. Ren Kapur MBE, Founder and CEO of X-Forces Enterprise CIC and Co-chair of the Soldiering On Awards said:

“In what has been a record-breaking year for the number of nominations received, my thanks go to our category judges for the diligence and dedication they have applied to this important step on the path to decide who will be the 2020 SOA Finalists.”

Awards timeline

There is one more stage to go, the final independent panel review at the end of November 2019, before Finalists are announced in early 2020.

The awards take place on 24 April 2020.

For more information

Find out more about X-Forces and the Soldiering On Awards

 

View Doug’s Category Judge profile

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health insurance

Developing multiple pathways and identifying over £16m cost savings at a major health insurer

The issue

  • Pressure to increase efficiency in their claims due to rising medical costs
  • Large variation in costs between suppliers and across the UK
  • Lack of structured routing for members to effective treatments and cost efficient providers across hospitals, clinics or doctors
  • Poor cost control with growing pressure to tackle medical costs due to rising claims and pressure on margins
  • Difficulty negotiating cost reductions with hospitals, and huge number of suppliers (including doctors) to manage

What we did

  1. Initial project to identify opportunities for cost reduction for specific saving target (£16 million in year)
    – Developed and prioritised 14 opportunities
    – Integrated milestone plans to achieve savings that year
  2. Second phase project to extent treatment pathway opportunity (MSK) and develop new treatment pathways
    – Identified possible treatment pathways in major medical treatment areas
    – Developed and communicated a new analytical methodology to understand spend variance, behaviour across specialists, by hospital and pathway
    – Collaborated with medical experts to develop care journeys to triage, treat and follow up
    – Business cases developed to support cost effective pathways roll out

health insurance

The results

  • £16 million in cost savings in year identified and resource planning completed to ensure in year delivery
  • Identified a solid saving of up to £36 million cumulatively over three years via medical pathways
  • Trained out how to use new analytical methodology
  • Delivered relevant and valuable research (internal / external) to underpin treatment pathways including medical studies, historic analysis and case studies of implementation

£16m

cost savings identified

£36m

savings identified cumulatively over three years via medical pathways

Curzon consulting mca finalist 2019

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Curzon Consulting Financial Services

Chairman's Masterclass: "The Challenge of Longevity"

Event: The Challenge of Longevity

27 November 2019, London

Event details

Where: Central London

When: 7pm-10pm, 27 November 2019

What: Dinner, Speech from AIG CEO Adam Winslow and Q&A

About the speaker

On 27 November 2019 we will be joined by Adam Winslow, Interim Chief Executive Officer of AIG’s global Life Insurance business, to discuss the Challenge of Longevity.

American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is a leading global insurance organisation with operations in over 80 countries.

Adam is responsible for AIG’s global life business (US and international). He also is a member of AIG’s Life and Retirement Executive Team.

Adam has served as Executive Director, UK Distribution; COO, EMEA Consumer; CEO, AIG Life Ltd (UK), and CEO, International Life and Retirement in London, before he was named Chairman of the Board of the AIG GBN pooling network in January, 2019.

Previous to working with AIG, he served various roles at Laya Healthcare, Aviva, BGL Group, and Allianz Global Investors.

Who should attend?

The Chairman’s Masterclass Dinner Series is a forum for senior business to discuss topical issues under Chatham House Rules.

Typical attendees include Chief Executive Officers, Chief Financial Officers, Chief Commercial Officers, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officers, Managing Directors and business unit Directors.

Register your interest

Complete this form or email events@curzonconsulting.com to register your interest

Please note that spaces are limited.


    By submitting your details, you confirm you have read our privacy statement and agree to us processing your data in accordance with it.

    This is the latest event in our Chairman’s Masterclass Dinner series, providing UK business leaders with insight for over a decade.

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    Unlocking over £20m in increased gross margin at a major health insurer

    The issue

    • Shrinking customer base
    • 13 legacy books and numerous policy variants causing customer and staff confusion
    • Operationally complex to manage – high cost to serve
    • Existing proposition and pricing created trigger points for customer exit
    • Customers not segmented by value
    • No differentiated renewal or save strategies
    • Not pricing for risk or maximised value retention
    • Poor customer journey: passed from function to function, advisors not empowered

    What we did

    Designed & executed a pricing, product and service migration of all policyholders to one new modular product

    • Developed new proposition which drove retention of high value customers and higher return from lower value customers
    • Built in upgrade/downgrade ‘right-size’ choices to mitigate competitor switching
    • Created pricing engine enabling all business to move to NCD-based policies and set renewal premiums to optimise gross margin
    • Cut expected IT lead time to launch from 12 to 3 months
    • Changed customer communications and management processes to de-risk customer disruption & loss
    • Engaged Legal and regulator on ‘automatic renewal’ plans throughout
    • Piloted the transition on 2 highest lapse-risk books to ensure error-free process and no adverse increase in lapse rates

    The results

    • Exceeded the £20Mpa gross margin improvement target
    • Reduced customer loss by 25%
    • Improved operating cost ratio from 30% to 16% with greatly improved IT flexibility
    • Excellent customer and FSA feedback
    • Successfully rolled out from personal to SME & Group schemes

    £20m

    exceeded the gross profit margin improvement target

    25%

    reduced customer loss

    14%

    reduction in operating costs

    An award-winning team

    Curzon consulting mca finalist 2019

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    Change management optimisation at a UK retail bank

    The issue

    • Unprecedented customer growth & branch expansion coupled with focus on improving service delivery and customer satisfaction placed pressure on our client to deliver greater and more complex change
    • A need to improve the architecture and governance of business process change
    • To ensure change management is ready and optimised for successful delivery of current and downstream change demand
    • Rapid growth brought complexity & uncertainty
    • There was a need for tightly defined governance mechanisms supported by a standardised way to adhere to change

    What we did

    • Designed framework for a multilevel business change process architecture to facilitate effective governance
    • Translated the framework into a new change management model with new working practices & Balanced Scorecard
    • Consistent communication and deployment in line with organisation’s need

    The results

    • Building blocks in place for bank to deliver its growth strategy securely
    • Reduced change backlog
    • Change management framework to drive sustainable change and maximise results implemented across bank operations
    • Agreed metrics/KPIs at selected organizational levels including baselines and targets

    An award-winning team

    Curzon consulting mca finalist 2019

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    Improving customer satisfaction at a leading retail and commercial bank

    The issue

    • Continuing declines in NPS and CRI scores across retail and commercial customer bases
    • Board’s ambition was to achieve market-leading customer recommendation levels
    • Ongoing customer service challenges driving up customer dissatisfaction ― but unclear as to true extent and causes
    • Big gaps between customer expectations and delivery
    • True extent of customer dissatisfaction not identified or addressed, and NPS surveying not used to mine for triggers. 40% of customers thought they had complained vs 4.5% recorded
    • Reality was 45% of customers who’d formally complained were dissatisfied with complaint resolution, making them far more likely to churn (62%)

    What we did

    Designed & executed a pricing, product and service migration of all policyholders to one new modular product

    • Worked across retail and commercial banking operations to understand and map impacts of service failures and complaints response on NPS and CRI scores
    • Identified biggest linkages between types of service failure, quality/ timeliness of complaint resolution, and the creation of Detractors
    • Surfaced major under-reporting of complaints and inaction where known detractors continued to be detractors
    • Developed set of targeted remedial actions to apply at point of service failure or complaints to prevent creation of detractors or convert them into neutral/advocates, minimising risk of eventual lapse
    • Defined how to cost-effectively and proactively pinpoints and stop service failures occurring
    • Designed operational changes in four customer management areas across Retail & Commercial Banking to reduce service failure and complaints volumes and costs

    The results

    • Recommendations agreed by both divisions
    • Transition plans delivered
    • ExCos in implementation
    • Reported improved NPS & satisfaction rate scores
    • On-target run-rate cost reduction benefits

    An award-winning team

    Curzon consulting mca finalist 2019

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    Financial Times Leading Management Consultants Curzon Consulting

    UK’s Leading Managing Consultants 2019

    30th January 20191 Minute

    We are delighted to have been named as one of the country’s leading management consultants by the Financial Times in 2019. Compiled with data company Statista, the annual rating is based on recommendations by clients and peers.

    Curzon Consulting, formerly Curzon & Company, has been recommended in three categories:

    • Recommended – Strategy
    • Recommended – Financial Institutions
    • Frequently recommended – Construction & Infrastructure

    Financial Times Leading Management Consultants Curzon Consulting

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    New rules for insurance customer growth

    26th April 20185 Minutes

    Curzon Consulting Financial Services lead Doug Badham discusses the “New rules for customer growth” for insurance companies in an article for Raconteur.

    New Rules for Customer Growth

    The old norms of insurance cause a lot of customer pain: ever-rising premiums, slow and undifferentiated service, complex procedures and poor communications. But big changes are afoot. Insurance customers want better for less as rapid technology advancement continuously raises service expectations – and disruptive new entrants are riding the wave. Inward-looking insurers ignore this at their peril. Doug Badham said:

    “We believe the industry has passed the point where it’s possible to grow profitably by sticking to the old rules,”

    Successful net insurance customer growth now depends on embracing a new set of rules.

    All customer contact is precious and should be as convenient as possible

    Policyholders expect to be treated as valued customers, able to interact 24/7 across joined-up access points as they do in other sectors. Seamless access boosts retention and reduces overall cost to serve, and requires digital enablers to be at the heart of the insurer’s operating model.

    “Insurers can no longer hide behind data security and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulation as reasons not to allow multiple channel completion of processes,” says Mr Badham

    The focus must be on retention from day one

    Keeping customers is harder than ever: switching, reducing or dropping cover has been rising steadily due to household cost-cutting and self-researched offer-hopping, leaving some underinsured. Use of comparison sites also means consumers leave bigger data footprints, which ratchets up competitor targeting of renewal dates. To defend against this, care and consistency must be core to the entire customer journey. The jolt when a frictionless sales process gives way to a clunky claims procedure won’t be tolerated.

    As Mr Badham explains: “Optimising claims experiences and making best use of technology to help customers minimise the cost of a claim, or not have to claim, is how retention battles will be won.” Take the LeakBot recently introduced to homecare cover, which alerts customers to first signs of a leak before worse damage ensues. Alongside claims experience, affordability is a prime reason for customer exit and another cornerstone of retention effectiveness will be the increasingly precise, personalised renewal pricing artificial intelligence can deliver.

    Have more meaningful customer communication more of the time

    Too often insurers’ attempts to communicate have an adverse rather than positive impact. Providers need to treat every customer touchpoint as an opportunity to demonstrate the value of their cover, particularly since April 2017’s FCA renewals regulation, which requires every renewal notice to encourage customers to shop around.

    The best will use analytics to provide genuinely beneficial, timely insight that allows customers to understand and minimise their risk, for example: “You are regularly braking sharply and exceeding speed limits.” According to Mr Badham: “What’s happening in health insurance, where providers are transforming from benign payers to lifelong wellbeing partners, is likely to be followed in motor, home and other lines.”

    Rebuild or build a brand based on trust and followership

    Insurance has become something of a dirty word in recent years, with many incumbents losing customer trust. Restoring it is partly about making the move from a back-office-centric operating model to one that delivers digitally driven customer management and contact excellence. On top of this, compelling brand proof points are crucial to fend off powerful non-insurance brands that have taken a foothold, such as John Lewis, and to combat price erosion from online distribution challengers. It won’t be a case of outspending them. The insurers who cut through the noise of comparison tables and “expert” web articles will be those earning and sustaining customer advocacy through trusted recommender communities and app-based insurance aggregators such as Boughtbymany and Brolly.

    There’s no hiding place from the disruption. Shedding the old rules and becoming a genuinely customer-driven insurer – in the customer’s eyes – is what it will take to thrive in the new environment.

    raconteur

    This article originally featured in Raconteur, April 2018

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