The role of the freelancer

Rob, you’ve been in the industry for some time. Why did you choose travel insurance and who have you worked for?

I started working in claims before moving into bancassurance – managing embedded and standalone insurance products, including travel.

After a brief spell with a dotcom start-up, I joined Mondial Assistance (now Allianz Partners) as National Sales Manager. Mondial were then one of the frontrunners in online sales and won accounts such as EasyJet, Expedia and Lastminute.com.

I then moved to Europ Assistance as Sales and Marketing Director for a few years, before moving into assistance, firstly with CEGA (now Charles Taylor Assistance) and then Healix International. I founded Intelligent Management Solutions Limited (IMS) in January 2019.

Tell us how IMS was born?

When my time came to an end with Healix, I was approached by a number of companies, asking if I might be available for some freelance work. I decided to say yes, and it quickly grew into a full-time business.

What services does IMS offer clients?

IMS provides freelance consultancy on a short term or retained basis to support clients who find that they have an internal skill or knowledge gap, want to launch into the market, accelerate their pace of growth, or simply need some extra management bandwidth during busy times.

Our most frequent projects have been around business development, where we help clients with independent market insight, research, planning, marketing, networking and sales.

What major changes have you seen in your time in the industry?

Covid-19 aside, one of the biggest changes has come in distribution, with the advent of the aggregators and embedded bank account policies.

Another big change for service providers has been implementing and managing remote working. Whilst some had begun exploring this prior to the pandemic, Covid-19 forced everyone to find a way to implement this at pace.

As for products, I’m not sure there have been many significant changes, but we’ve seen a huge increase in the amount of time and energy spent in complying with the evergrowing raft of regulation.

What will the next ‘big thing’ be?

Rather than someone revolutionising travel insurance, I think what we’re seeing instead is a raft of marginal gains being delivered across the spectrum, by some very bright and innovative companies.

Of course, technology will drive a lot of this change, and there are some amazing tools emerging now around parametric insurance, climate risk, dynamic product builders and automated claims assessment.

These advancements, whilst not necessarily groundbreaking in themselves, will continue to enhance the overall customer experience, which in turn will improve the efficacy (and reputation) of travel insurance as a whole.

But it won’t all be about apps and artificial intelligence! Medical assistance, all types of repatriation and claims management involving complex losses, all rely on experienced and empathetic human interaction. As a result, effective recruitment, training and development will remain key to delivering the highest level of customer service.

You’ve been a familiar face on stage at the ITIJ Awards over the years – both receiving awards and presenting some. Tell us about this.

Yes, such fun times! Most of the companies I worked for won at least one ‘best in category’ award during my tenure. I know that some people pretend awards are not a big deal, but deep down all teams like to see their hard work acknowledged.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

The people, 100%. I’ve had the privilege of working for, and with, some incredibly knowledgeable and inspiring people, many of whom I now count as good friends.

I also enjoy the fact that my relationship with my clients is very symbiotic. I hopefully bring valuable skills and knowledge to the table, but always come away from a project having learned a lot too!