AMP Sanmar Assurance Company Limited, a joint venture for life insurance business between Australia’s 153-year-old Australian financial services giant and the Sanmar group, was launched in a colourful ceremony on Monday, January 21, 2002 at the Park Sheraton, Chennai.
The former President of India, R Venkataraman, formally launching AMP Sanmar Assurance Company in Chennai. Others seen from left are: Tim Wade, Managing Director, AMP International, S V Mony, Chief Executive Officer, AMP Sanmar, Penelope Anne Wensley, High Commissioner of Australia in India, and N Sankar, Chairman, Sanmar group.
Highlights of the launch were the cricket ambience created at the venue, with both joint venture partners owing a strong allegiance to the promotion of cricket, and a video presentation to announce the launch, followed by a videotaped address by AMP Sanmar’s brand ambassador, Steve Waugh, the Australian cricket captain.
The chief guest was former President of India R Venkataraman, “whose name is inextricably linked with the industrial development of the state” in the words of N Sankar, Chairman, Sanmar group, who described him in his welcome address “as a very long-standing well-wisher and friend of our family.” Sankar spoke of the Sanmar group’s core competency of identifying new businesses and organizing and launching them well, while explaining the decision to enter the life insurance business in an era of specialization in core competence.
N Sankar, Chairman, Sanmar group, said that he had been working hard at establishing an Australian joint venture for Sanmar for quite some time, and it had “become a sort of challenge” for him. “Australia is one country that I am very fond of. And, India and Australia share many common interests, and the most talked about, of course, is cricket.”
Bringing this particular competency of establishing and managing a new business in India, and marrying it to AMP’s competencies in the financial services business, in a true partnership, was facilitated by Sanmar’s three-decade old experience of successfully establishing and managing joint ventures.
Sankar stressed the trust that Sanmar’s business practices, management style and cutting edge HR management practices enjoy from a variety of constituents, customers, shareholders, banks, financial institutions, depositors and other stakeholders, 15 international JV partners, suppliers, customers, the general public, and the employees of the group.
In his speech, the former President who unveiled a commemorative plaque on the occasion, emphasized the value of the firm foundation laid in the early years of independent India through the Plans and the mixed economy model, as well as the harm done by India’s failure to switch to a free market economy once the need for controls ceased to exist. As someone with a long association with the Sanmar group and the family behind the group headed by Chairman Emeritus, K S Narayanan, he wished the new joint venture all success. Noting the huge size of the life insurance market in India, he called upon AMP Sanmar to spread wide and diversify to serve the customer’s interests best.
“The foundations for greater cooperation in the future between India and Australia have been laid”, said former President of India R Venkataraman.
Tim Wade, Managing Director, AMP International, said: “The Indian partner’s willingness to grant the overseas partner a significant management influence will help AMP bring all its skills to bear more quickly, efficiently and effectively”.
AMP International Managing Director Tim Wade said that in 1948, AMP began life as a mutual or community co-operative, with a vision of providing people with financial security through good times and bad. That vision became a business which first spread to New Zealand and then to the United Kingdom within its first 10 years. The motto of that business was: “A certain friend in uncertain times”.
AMP owed its origins as Australian Mutual Provident, to three public-spirited citizens who devised a plan to form a provident society to help Australian colonies to emerge from the depression in 1848. Demutualised four years ago, AMP now operates in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, and through subsidiaries and associate companies in over 26 countries around the world. Its total assets under management are close to 300 billion Australian dollars or over 700,000 crore rupees.
AMP brings to the joint venture considerable distribution skills that enable it to distribute even its competitors’ products, besides its own, supported by state-of-the-art back office systems and actuarial skills honed over the last 150 years. These will help the Indian joint venture craft unique products to suit the needs of Indian customers.
Wade complimented the Sanmar group for the excellent reputation for integrity it enjoys and AMP Sanmar’s formidable combination of managerial talent headed by former GIC Chairman S V Mony. After dwelling on AMP’s demonstrated strengths, he referred to the vital contribution to communities that the Australian major made, in sports and culture, sponsoring the torch relay at the Sydney Olympics, for instance. He spoke of the common passion for sport, cricket in particular, shared by the two countries as well as the joint venture partners. “Australia has the world’s best team and India the world’s best batsman,” he remarked while hailing the synergy between the two companies. He assured the audience that AMP was committed to a long-term relationship with India, Sanmar and the customer, “creating better futures” for Indians.
The backdrop for the launch.
High Commissioner for Australia in India and Guest of Honour Penelope Anne Wensley congratulated AMP on choosing as its joint venture partner the Sanmar group, the perfect partner. It was essential for any Australian company wanting to succeed in India to pick a company that really understood India’s “challenges and particularities”. She also complimented Sanmar for choosing AMP, proudly Australian and synonymous with security and safety. She also praised both partners for starting the venture in Chennai. She was “struck by the warmth, spirit and southern hospitality,” of the city. It was a very exciting time to be in India, and those companies would succeed which focused on the positives, not those who were fair weather friends.
Guest of Honour Penelope Anne Wensley, High Commissioner of Australia in India, said that the joint venture was “important for relations between Australia and India”. She described both JV partners as highly respected, pioneering companies.
Wensley made a reference to AMP Sanmar’s brand ambassador, the Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh and, his acceptance in India as a sporting icon and philanthropist. Using a cricket analogy, Wensley, said that in addition to being dependable, AMP Sanmar needed leadership, teamwork, the ability to run fast, and steady hands.
Chief Executive Officer S V Mony predicted high growth in the Indian insurance market, some 15-18 per cent. According to him, the high domestic savings rate amounting to 25% of GDP meant strong potential for growth in savings and pension products. “Potential for life insurance in India, therefore, is very large,” he added.
S V Mony, CEO, AMP Sanmar, said: “The joint venture will be in a state of readiness faster than others... We have gone through a rigorous process of selecting people to promote the company and the brand. A brand strategy document has been evolved at the micro as well as macro levels”.
According to Mony, AMP Sanmar will market life insurance and savings products in a market that is traditionally agent driven, initially through a well-trained agency force, but is also negotiating strategic alliances and corporate agencies. Emerging new distribution channels will eventually lead to multi-channel distribution. The wide range of products on offer will initially comprise special endowment, money back, children’s, term life and whole-of-life policies.
Mony described “a reasonably flat organization structure, designed to facilitate speedy responses to customers.” Ten Customer Service Centres would be ready by end January at places like Chennai, Vellore, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi and Kottayam, according to him. 25 more such centres would be ready by end March, he said.
A section of the audience.
Guests at the dinner.
Mandolin U Srinivas entertained the guests.
An attraction at the launch was the cricket ambience there. The pavilion in the picture is that of the Sanmar pavilion at the IIT-Chemplast cricket ground. On display on the opposing walls are a campaign of seven advertisements featuring Australian captain Steve Waugh and other cricket legends.
India’s and Australia’s cricket legends including Steve Waugh, AMP’s brand ambassador, adorn the dais.
The Sanmar pavilion at the IIT-Chemplast cricket ground was recreated at the dinner, serving as the bar.