When the situation room becomes your own living room

Insurers deal with risks day in, day out. With the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, Zurich’s businesses in Asia Pacific (APAC) have adjusted to a dramatic new situation. It means coping with unforeseen events and many unknowns, while looking after customers and keeping people safe. In other words, business as usual, even when it’s anything but.

On a normal weekday, Jack Howell, Chief Executive Officer Asia Pacific, oversees Zurich’s businesses across APAC, with over 6,000 employees serving millions of customers. These days he’s still running things, but like much of the rest of the world, he’s working remotely from home. With Asia at the epicenter of the initial corona virus spread, Howell’s team has had to be quick to respond, but they’ve still succeeded in looking after employees and customers.

Howell credits APAC’s crisis teams for conveying calm and confidence in managing the impact. As other markets worldwide face lockdowns, Howell’s teams are setting a brave example for high-powered executives and foot soldiers in companies the world over.

Even so, it’s taken some getting used to. Simply staying in one place feels a little strange to him.

“I did the math. By not traveling, I am gaining about 60 hours a month. It’s really an incredible change for me,” says Howell, who spoke via a video link from his living room in Hong Kong, which serves as his office for now, an apartment shared with his wife and two teenage children, and until recently, the family’s dog.

“More than anything, the people that we have and our willingness to serve customers, and an understanding for their needs during this difficult time, is what has helped us to keep going.”

During the crisis, the dog passed away. While many families have faced very sad news of late, in close quarters with nowhere to go due to social distancing, emotions “get amplified. You are limited in what you can do.” But he is grateful to be able to spend a lot of time with his family. When not meeting customers, partners and staff in countries across APAC, he is also a hobby baker. So, while running a world-class business, he has also been able to keep his family well-stocked with homemade bread.

Keeping in touch with customers – even when touching is only remote

As a member of Zurich’s Executive Committee, Howell is responsible for one of the Group’s four geographic regions. Zurich’s APAC serves customers in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. And, there’s Zurich’s global travel assistance provider, Cover-More, based in Sydney, too.

“More than anything, the people that we have and our willingness to serve customers, and an understanding for their needs during this difficult time, is what has helped us to keep going,” Howell told employees on a message broadcast on Zurich’s internal social media channel.

“I have received very positive feedback from our customers in terms of their experience with us during this time, and that’s a testament to our ability to work through a very difficult situation,” he says.

Customers Zurich has helped included passengers quarantined on two major cruise ships. Working mostly from home, Zurich’s claims teams were able to coordinate a quick response to support about 480 of the customers who had bought travel insurance and were stuck on the ships.

Zurich also insures businesses around the globe. With the corona virus crisis, its commercial customers are facing risks beyond business shutdowns and employee contagion: cyber risks. That includes phishing attacks designed to look like Covid-19 updates.

“That has opened up a number of vulnerabilities. We have been proactively helping business customers to protect their organizations from cyber crime,” says Howell.

Being there for the family, and the extended family

Teams in Hong Kong started working from home on Jan 29, 2020. A few are starting to return to the office using a ‘split’ team approach, but management is still encouraging people to work from home if they don’t need to come in. In his video message to employees, Howell exhorted everyone to think as a team, saying: “I would ask that you think about your fellow employees. Many of us are going through very similar situations, and it is important to know that we are not alone.”

With APAC experiencing the world’s first wave of the virus contagion, Howell also encouraged others on his team, especially the CEOs of the businesses in the region, to share what they’ve done with other CEOs around Zurich. Advice included tips for working from home and motivating employees.

Howell says this is a learning experience for him, too. “I have to remind myself to reach out to people and create some interaction. If I haven’t spoken to a person for a couple of days, I send them a message.” For employees and customers alike, he sees this as one of the hardest things to master: “How do you create social interaction when you are practicing social distancing?”

No customer service without employees

Thankfully, no employees in Zurich APAC have thus far tested positive for the virus. That might be partly because, with employees’ safety in mind, Zurich’s offices in APAC were among the first in Hong Kong to tell staff to work from home. Zurich, a global insurer that operates worldwide, has done likewise in many of its offices around the world, receiving praise in the media in its hometown of Zurich for doing so. This response involves fast decision-making.

Even prior to the crisis, Howell had encouraged his teams to be proactive and prepare for a crisis. And when there were still only very few cases of corona virus in Hong Kong, early in the crisis, Howell had already decided to shut offices for a while.

“You will generally be forgiven for making the wrong decision if you are protecting people, but there is very little forgiveness for making the wrong decision if you are not protecting people,” Howell says.

Looking to the future

While Howell’s team might not have all the answers on how the crisis will play out, he does think that due to the virus, there will be changes in how businesses approach customers. This could be good news for companies like Zurich that have already spent a lot of time focused on meeting customer expectations and finding innovative ways to meet those needs.

“People will want to interact with us in different ways in the future. Some won’t want to come to our offices. They will want the opportunity to do that digitally. We will accelerate our efforts in that direction,” he says.

For the immediate future, however, his expectations are more modest. Howell, an American, says his biggest wish is to get out a little, even if it is just to throw a baseball around with his son: “I am really looking forward to a change in scenery.”