Q&A with Robert Kuchinski (He/Him) Head of Commercial Insurance Zurich UK and Global Head of Energy
How did you get into the insurance sector?
I graduated in 1986 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and in my last semester I had some on-campus interviews with different firms and the insurance job offer included a company car. I had never heard of such a thing and I couldn’t believe that was something they would provide for me so that swung it really and I’ve never looked back!
What would you say is the top lesson you’ve learnt in your career at Zurich?
With great leadership, at every level of an organisation, anything is possible. I don’t just mean leadership like Mario Greco, CEO Zurich Insurance Group, and his team, I mean all the way through the organisation. It’s amazing how far we’ve come in 5 years. I’ve worked for some of the greatest leaders in my career, and for a few that left a little to be desired. I’ll take great leadership and having fun and a feeling of teamwork or even family, knowing that we can win together, over a bigger pay check for not having that atmosphere.
How do you keep ahead of market developments?
Keeping in touch with as many people as possible, not just here in my immediate team in the UK but also my colleagues across the globe. So, some people I speak to frequently are Paul Horgan Head of Zurich North America National Accounts; Brandon Fick, ZNA CUO; Peter Englund, Head of Commercial Insurance Middle East; Penny Seach Chief Underwriting Office EMEA, and many others. Having different sources of information across the globe helps you keep in your finger on the pulse of the business.
Externally, I am Chair of the International Underwriting Association (IUA) and this means not only do I hear from Zurich but so many other people from different parts of the London market, including those who provide third party services. Being Chair of the IUA means you are automatically one of the Executive Board Members of the London Market Group (LMG) and that keeps me in touch with even more people in the market. Hearing all these different perspectives is what really helps me keep in touch with the market.
What challenges are facing Commercial customers in 2022?
We hear a few things from our customers quite routinely and they are; Supply chain - this is a huge challenge right now for any type of customer in almost any type of industry, Cyber risks, and Climate change and sustainability in general. These tend to be at the top.
Other things that are concerning to our customers are that parts of our market are still hardening and let’s not forget the pandemic, although this doesn’t feel like a new risk anymore it’s something we continue to deal with.
Climate Change and Sustainability is high on everyone’s agenda globally what are Zurich Commercial doing and how does our work support our customers and brokers?
It’s key to treat these as two different things, - a lot of people use these terms interchangeably. I’ll talk about sustainability first; this is like trying to boil the ocean - you must slow it down and take it one step at a time. As an organisation, not only do I think we have the right culture here in Zurich, but we have put structure in place to ensure it’s a strategic focus. We have a Head of Sustainability and a Head of Responsible Investments so no matter if it’s the insurance side or the investment side structurally we have the support in place to back-up our brand and our focus.
Thinking about climate change, because this is where our products come in, I think people would be surprised to see just how much we already offer. One of the spaces we can provide support is through Zurich Resilience Solutions and the risk engineers. We have dedicated experts within that team in the UK and through them we can provide real support to our customers in planning for and managing their exposures in this space.
As of the beginning of January this year we are now writing operational and construction coverages for large, complex Wind and Solar Alternative Energy customers. We had been writing those under an MGA but we have brought them back in house. I am personally very excited by this
What differentiates Zurich in the way we support customers in managing their risks?
There’s a lot of things that differentiate us and of course the first thing that comes to my mind being an engineer is Zurich Resilience Solutions and all the ways we can support customers through that team. We have global capabilities that are second to none. We’ve got a wide suite of products with meaningful capacity and some of the best underwriters, relationship leaders and deal managers in the world. We have a brilliant claims proposition that we always hear good things about from our customers and brokers. There are a lot of arrows in our quiver, and these things help us to create a meaningful value propositions for our customers.
Those are all the things where we are very good, but for me it’s important we also focus on the areas where we may not be best in class and fix those. We’re able to be honest with ourselves about where our competitors are catching us out. If we focus on those things, and not just the ones we are great at, it will mean we are still able to be there for our customers in a meaningful way in the years to come.
What is the best piece of advice you have been given?
That’s an easy one, this is something my oldest brother told me when my wife and I were having our first baby, and he said if I have to leave the room during her labour not to return with Oreo cookies on my breath!
But seriously now from a business and leadership perspective I’ve had more than one great leader in my career mentor me and tell me that truly great leaders accomplish a lot more using their ears rather than their mouth.
What would you do if you weren’t working in the insurance industry?
I studied Mechanical Engineering with a plan to work in power plants and the closest job offer I had to what I wanted to do was with General Electric (GE), building gas turbines, but they didn’t have the company car! Were it not for that, I probably would have taken the GE job but then who knows where my life would have ended up? I might not have met my wife and might not have discovered how amazing living and working in London is, the whole of the UK in fact. I like to think that my innovative and experimental side would have taken me all over the world anyway but who knows…
What one thing would people be surprised to know about you?
Those that do know me won’t find this surprising but if folks are reading this and don’t know me that well then, it’s definitely that I love my job, but I love my family more. (And I promise Jackie isn’t even in the other room listening as I tell you this!) Family comes first for me. I came from simple beginnings we were a typical blue-collar family, my dad worked two sometimes three jobs to help pay for us three boys to go to school. I’m the youngest so when I started school my mother also went back to work which was unusual then. But even with all that neither one of them ever missed a baseball game or football game, we always had dinner together.
My point is everyone needs grounding. I know that not everyone has a close family, but hopefully everyone has something or someone that helps them get away and ground them in something outside of work. My family is that for me and maybe this is the real surprise, but I have always, always taken every single vacation day every year. I never even given up one day.
If I was to turn this into advice, I would say to people to have something that grounds them, and don’t forget to take your vacation time.
What do you love about working at Zurich?
Purpose and integrity, it has to be those two things. This comes from leadership and here it’s from the very top, it’s why I joined the company.
With regards to our purpose, when we as an organisation say we value diversity, or we are committed to positively impacting the world with regards to climate change, those aren’t tag lines or something our investors are telling our board to do, I know first-hand that our Group Executive Committee are truly committed to these things from not just a business perspective but a personal perspective.
I knew this was a business of integrity from my very first few days in Zurich. I travelled out to Switzerland to meet with colleagues and Mario Greco came and spoke to us. He encouraged everybody in the room to respectfully challenge each other, and I think that attitude has changed the whole organisation. We have to have an atmosphere of openness and honesty and I think that is where we see the real integrity of our people. I appreciate when people challenge me…hopefully they also remember the “respectful” part as well!
I think both of those things are so prevalent in this organisation and I love that about Zurich.
What’s the Commercial strategy for 2022 and how will we be supporting our customers?
2022 is an interesting year for us, we will be continuing to execute on our current plan and deliver an excellent service to our customers, but we are setting our sights on 2025. It’s almost as though this year is a transition between two legs of a triathlon, we are far from the finish line, but we are ready to move on to something new. So, we need to be prepared for the next leg of the race.