Thakorn Piyapan wants to lead Southeast Insurance and Finance Group towards a digital platform, transforming it into an insurtech company to expand the group's business in the digital era.
Thakorn: digital way forward
With five financial subsidiaries operating under Thai Group Holdings Plc including Southeast, digital services will start with the insurance business, covering both life and non-life, which are the group's core businesses, said the new chief executive.
Initially the group will take around five years to gradually apply the digital service platform by separating it into a two-phase development, he said.
For the first phase from 2021 to 2022, the group plans to strengthen its digital infrastructure by focusing mainly on human resources and operational processes.
Fine-tuning the digital mindset of all staff in preparation for digital services and developing the digital process framework are key factors for greater business opportunities of all financial businesses under Thai Group Holdings, said Mr Thakorn.
Thai Group Holdings offers a variety of financial services and is controlled by tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, who appointed Mr Thakorn as chief executive in November 2020.
Before joining Thai Group Holdings, Mr Thakorn served as head of Krungsri Consumer, an unsecured loan unit under Bank of Ayudhya (BAY), and BAY's head of digital banking and innovation division.
Subsidiaries of Thai Group Holdings operate financial services ranging from life and non-life insurance, leasing and loan products among others.
Southeast Life Insurance Plc, the life insurance subsidiary, contributes a major portion to Thai Group Holdings' profit.
The group plans to build up an ecosystem of insurance business by connecting its digital network with other related industries which are business partners of Thai Group Holdings.
For instance, the group plans to link its digital platform with hospitals for the life insurance business and connect with garages for the non-life insurance counterpart, said Mr Thakorn.
A gradual expansion of the digital ecosystem to integrate with other financial services of Thai Group Holdings will be implemented at a later stage, said Mr Thakorn.
The partnership model is also a key strategy considered as a short-cut method to catch up with the waves of consumers' changing lifestyles and new technologies in the digital era, said Mr Thakorn.
The group has held discussions with some potential partners, both technology companies and startups, in several tech industries including data analytics and artificial intelligence.
"Under our digital direction, Thai Group Holdings has been developing digital infrastructure by itself for a while, especially data analytics. Hence, it's possible to turn around our life and non-life insurance businesses to become insurtech companies, but this would need more time," Mr Thakorn said.
Mr Thakorn said a clearer picture of the digital service platform of Thai Group Holdings' insurance business will become more apparent in the next 3-5 years.
Under the digital platform adoption, the group aims to use this strategy to leverage its business and customer base expansion, with the objective of increasing its market share in the insurance industry.
At present, the group's non-life insurance business is ranked in the sixth position among industry peers, while it stands in the 10th spot for the life insurance business.
The group plans to increase its new customer base by 15-20% over the next 3-5 years from the existing 3 million policyholders of both life and non-life insurance businesses.
As there is a minimal threshold of insurance penetration at 30% of Thailand's total population, there is more room to expand the group's businesses buoyed by digital services, said Mr Thakorn.
"Building up a strong digital ecosystem of insurance business, this will facilitate greater opportunities to expand into other financial services under Thai Group Holdings, especially for digital lending," he said.