{"id":9293,"date":"2025-01-21T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T08:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"httpss:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/?p=9291"},"modified":"2025-03-12T06:25:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T06:25:22","slug":"voi-podcast-with-chris-williams-of-tokio-marine-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/content\/voi-podcast-with-chris-williams-of-tokio-marine-group\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A global initiative underway\u2019 \u2013 Tokio Marine\u2019s Chris Williams highlights ambitions in the opportunity-rich renewable energy market"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><iframe title=\"Ep239 Chris Williams Tokio Marine International: Nurturing Global Insurance DNA\" allowtransparency=\"true\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" style=\"border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);height:150px;\" scrolling=\"no\" data-name=\"pb-iframe-player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/player-v2\/?from=embed&amp;i=cxttw-17acec0-pb&amp;share=1&amp;download=1&amp;fonts=Tahoma&amp;skin=3267a3&amp;font-color=&amp;rtl=0&amp;logo_link=&amp;btn-skin=1b1b1b&amp;size=150\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chris Williams is a dynamic leader deeply passionate about collaborating with renewable energy companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the lead-up to his interview with Voice of Insurance, the chairman of international business engaged in a series of meetings in New York, concentrating on renewable energy\u2014an area where Tokio Marine Group aims for global impact and growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe dollars that are involved to develop some of these alternative sources of energy are very, very significant,\u201d he shared with host Mark Geoghegan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Global renewable plans and state of cyber<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tokio Marine has been hiring teams and making acquisitions, most notably in 2020 with GCube, a specialist renewable energy underwriter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Williams, the complexities inherent in renewable energy projects present unique challenges that align perfectly with Tokio Marine&#8217;s expertise, highlighting areas such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/content\/why-managing-trade-credit-risk-is-now-more-important-than-ever\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">credit insurance<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo, we see that as a place we&#8217;re putting some effort in. We&#8217;ve got a global initiative underway about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cyber is another product where insurers can offer that high-level expertise and risk management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, new entrants have poured into cyber, prices fallen and wordings expanded \u2013 leading to losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo that market, to us, seems to be correcting itself a little bit. I think insurers have been more responsible, and I think they&#8217;re also being smarter on terms and conditions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ambitious strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Underpinning the product innovation, is Tokio Marine\u2019s global strategy. The insurer has been making acquisitions worldwide in the last 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The insurer has around a $75bn market cap, operating in 44 countries with 44,000 staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf you turn the clock back approximately 20 years ago, about 3% of our earnings came from our international business. If you fast forward that today, it&#8217;s more like 75%,\u201d Williams explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Challenges of a giant<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Being a global giant presents its challenges. How do you keep such a large business aligned with its corporate goals and foster a successful culture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Williams explains how acquisitions are offered a level of autonomy, while also feeding off the historic expertise of Tokio Marine, which can make them \u2018bigger and better\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tokio Marine boasts a diversified portfolio of product offerings, which not only appeals to clients, but also effectively spreads and diversify its risk mixture. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Williams emphasises the importance of culture in this process: \u201cWhen you bring a company or individuals in, that they&#8217;ve got a culture they come from, whatever environment they&#8217;re in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think as a group, we, over the last five years, have made significant strides to get people on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Williams has experienced different business culture throughout his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He has enjoyed a 50-year career starting in Australia, working at Lloyd\u2019s and moving to the US. During that time, he also worked as a broker. Williams joined the group in 2015 via the acquisition of HCC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a fast 50 years, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d Williams enthuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Claims is key<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Achieving best-in-class performance in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/products\/policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claims management<\/a> is vital for Tokio Marine&#8217;s future success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Williams emphasises that strong claims handling is essential for creating value for both customers and the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tokio Marine will bring in people&nbsp; during the middle of the night if that\u2019s what it takes to solve a claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He concludes: \u201cIt really is a very thoughtful process that they go through, and it&#8217;s one of the reasons we have such a dominant position in Japan. We need to make sure we&#8217;re doing that around the world. And as a general comment, we&#8217;re getting better and better at that; we are there to respond in the event of some sort of adversity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Williams is a dynamic leader deeply passionate about collaborating with renewable energy companies. In the lead-up to his interview with Voice of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,26],"tags":[10,14],"line-of-business":[23],"class_list":["post-9293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcasts","category-latest-insights","tag-exposure","tag-underwriting-workbench","line-of-business-energy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9293"},{"taxonomy":"line-of-business","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/line-of-business?post=9293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}