RKH keeps focus on product in Asia

The key to unlocking Asia-Pacific is product expertise that responds to clients’ needs—as opposed to targeting growth in a specific region, says Stuart Beatty of RKH Specialty Asia.

Focusing on specific product lines and building expertise around them with relevance to clients—as opposed to focusing on specific territories—has been key to RKH Specialty’s strategy in Asia-Pacific, according to Stuart Beatty, chief executive officer for the region.

He said that this strategy reflects RKH’s approach in other parts of the world—and it has worked well so far in Asia-Pacific.

“Any initiative we have anywhere in the world—in this case Asia-Pacific—is geared around product lines at its core,” said Beatty. “We as a business look at where the opportunities are in the respective regions, and then invest and structure the business accordingly where we create specific products with regional context.”

Since taking on his role as regional CEO six months ago, the business Beatty has taken on in Asia focuses on building upon two existing principal product lines: property and marine.

“My job is to take what is in place and help expand the company’s overall specialty lines offering,” he said. “The business is young in the region and what we’re looking to do in the next year or two is move it to a more adolescent stage.

“We’re three years away before we see maturity as a business model in the region when we will have a number of well-established product lines trading across the region which are meaningful contributors to the respective product lines global activity.”

RKH Specialty operates on a product line P&L rather than geographic P&Ls and as a result the focus when discussing strategies with the head of property, marine, energy or any of the other product lines centres on bringing the firm’s resources in all the major international markets to bear.

“Depending on the client and country, how we deliver our product expertise can take a myriad of guises. We look at localised trading conditions, competitor landscape, regulatory issues, wholesale market authority and appetites and overlay all this with where we can invest with key people in the region to take advantage of opportunities,” Beatty explained.

“My role is to help regionalise the strategy, implement it and then manage it. You have to employ the right people and make sure you have the appropriate licences and operational structure in the region to best support a sales and service-focused business.

“We’re trying to line up our placement resource to marry up with these evolving trends as clients will still be highly dependent on good quality reinsurance capacity and specialised product,” said Beatty.

“At the same time we’re looking at regions where our clients are either a broker partner, a domestic cedant, a managing general agent (MGA), or a coverholder. We’re moving from a London Market placement focus to embrace a hub strategy therefore expanding to where the key wholesale markets are in other parts of the world.”

A wider view

Beatty pointed out that the firm’s hub strategy isn’t limited to Asia-Pacific. RKH Specialty is implementing the same strategy for Latin America in Miami and the Middle East in Dubai.

“If you were to have the same conversation with my colleagues in those other parts of the world, you would be hearing a consistent message,” he added.

With RKH being a very client-centric business, Beatty said it is important to understand what clients’ needs are, as it differs region by region.

“As an example, what has made RKH very successful is our ability to deliver to clients, often brokers themselves, specialist placement capabilities into the London Market that add value to our clients’ overall offering. It’s the same whether the client is a broker, an insurer or an MGA,” he said.

“When we’re sitting in front of a broker partner, by extension their clients are our clients.

“We are very clear to our broker partners that the value we’re trying to add to them is relevant to all classes and across all the relevant wholesale markets.”

Stuart Beatty is regional chief executive for Asia-Pacific, RKH Specialty. He can be contacted at  stuart.beatty@rkhspecialty.com

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