Bai Tao, chairman of Chinese Life, and Zhao Pengqi, the proposed president, appeared and will adopt these strategies in the future

On August 26, Chinese Life held a press conference on its 2022 interim results, and Bai Tao, the new chairman of Chinese Shou, who had been on the job for 7 months, and Zhao Peng, secretary of the party committee and proposed president of Chinese Shou, who had been on the job for only one month, appeared, not only detailing the results of the work in the first half of the year, but also clarifying the future strategic intentions and action directions to everyone.

As the most direct indicator of the performance of listed companies, Chinese's recent stock price reflects the attitude of investors. In the A-share market, on August 24 and 25, Chinese Life closed up 4.97% and 3.18% respectively, ranking first in insurance stocks. On the day of the press conference, the stock price of Chinese Life A shares continued to rise.

Judging from the reported data, the transformation work of Chinese Life is stabilizing: as of the end of June, the market share reached 20%, 8 percentage points higher than the second place; The company's total assets exceeded 5 trillion yuan, reaching 5.17 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.8% over the beginning of the year; Net investment income was RMB97.009 billion, up 8.1% year-on-year; The intrinsic value reached 1,250.877 billion yuan, an increase of 3.98% year-on-year; The value of new business was 25.745 billion yuan, which was lower than that of the same industry; new policy premiums, premiums paid in advance, and premiums paid in 10 years all achieved positive growth, and the per capita production capacity increased significantly.

The number of agents that the industry is quite concerned about is still in a downward channel, but some indicators have improved significantly: the decline in manpower has narrowed, and in the first half of the year, the scale of manpower in Chinese life has fallen by 9%, which is lower than the overall decline of 14% of the "old seven"; At the same time, the per capita first-year delivery capacity increased by 60.6%, and the retention rate of new personnel in 7 months and 13 months increased by 10% and 30% respectively.

Of course, for the current Chinese life, its biggest attraction is not the short-term performance, but the personnel adjustment of its senior management. In January, Bai Tao was appointed as the new chairman of Chinese Life, and in July, Zhao Peng returned to China Life insurance and became the secretary of the party committee and the proposed president of Chinese Life, and the fresh combination of "white + Zhao" added a new look to Chinese Shouping.

The two's previous good results have become one of the important bases for the industry to be optimistic about the future development of Chinese Life. Bai Tao, an all-round comprehensive financial manager, graduated from Chinese University majoring in finance, and has held important positions in ICBC, China Life Insurance Group, China Investment Corporation, Huijin Corporation, PICC Group and SDIC Corporation. In January 2020, during his tenure as chairman of SDIC, in the face of the sudden outbreak of the new crown epidemic, Bai Tao always maintained a strategic focus, leading the company to quickly resume work and production and resume normal operations. At the end of 2021, SDIC reached a total profit of 22.1 billion yuan, and in 2021, it achieved a historic breakthrough, with a total profit of 46.1 billion yuan, an increase of 108% year-on-year.

Zhao Peng, secretary of the party committee and proposed president of Chinese Life, who will team up with Bai Tao, is one of the few "post-70s" core executives in the current insurance central enterprises, born in 1972, and is only 50 years old. Zhao Peng is an insurance professional, he graduated from Hunan Institute of Finance and Economics (merged into Hunan University in 2000) in July 1995, he joined Chinese Life, and has since worked here for more than 20 years, with many experiences in the capital department of life insurance companies, the finance and accounting department of the group company, etc., and also served as a leader in the Zhejiang branch of the premium town, withstood the cruel test from the front line of business, and led the Zhejiang branch to achieve excellent results in the growth rate of various core business indicators exceeding the average level of the whole system.

Of course, the transformation is deepening, and the pain points of the industry still exist, but for Chinese Life, the direction and path are already clear, and the new leadership team and new development strategy deserve high attention.

The following is based on the speeches of Chinese life executives such as Bai Tao and Zhao Peng, and introduces the long-term strategic direction and short-term operation methods of Chinese Life in more detail.

Bai Tao

Chinese Shou drove into no man's land, and he had to play a good combination of "sticking to" and "seeking change"

Since the 1990s, after about 30 years of rapid development, China's life insurance industry has finally reached a key crossroads in the transformation from high-speed development to high-quality development. This transformation is no longer a simple transformation of product strategy, channel strategy and other superficial means can completely solve the problem, but requires a thorough transformation from top to bottom, from the inside and outside, involving the transformation of business strategy, the iteration of business model, and the reshaping of corporate values.

In this regard, Bai Tao frankly stated that Chinese Shou has driven into no man's land, "there is no longer any experience to learn from, and it is no longer possible to simply copy the model, how to go in the future, we need to actively innovate and explore Chinese Life itself." ”

In the face of the "unprecedented changes in a hundred years" and the unprecedented complex situation it has brought to the domestic insurance industry, how to break the deadlock for insurance companies that have no mature experience to learn from is the most urgent "question of the times" in the current industry, and it is particularly important for Chinese Life, a head insurance company known as the stabilizer of the industry, to answer this question well.

The answer given by Bai Tao is two key words, "persistence" and "change": "The first keyword is 'persistence', to maintain concentration; the second keyword is 'seeking change', to keep pace with the times." ”

In Bai Tao's view, the so-called "adherence" is to adhere to the "insurance surname protection", adhere to the source of insurance protection, adhere to the core development concept of insurance for the people, and adhere to the main line of high-quality development; The so-called "change" refers to the continuous change of the internal and external environment, if you can not lead the team to keep pace with the times, the future will be eliminated.

Bai Tao

Explain in detail the strategic direction of Chinese life, promote the reform of "four modernizations", and build five core advantages

At the interim results conference, Bai Tao also made a detailed description of the future development direction of Chinese Life, the key is to promote the "four modernizations" reform and build five "core advantages".

Among them, promoting the reform of the "four modernizations" includes promoting digital reform, promoting comprehensive work, promoting professional construction, and promoting marketization. Among them, when talking about "integration", Bai Tao pointed out that Chinese Life Group is a huge group, which has deep potential in the promotion of integration, and the next step will focus on product integration and channel integration, hoping to achieve "one customer, multiple products, one-stop service".

The five major advantages of construction include, first, to build product and service advantages, promote the scenario-based and diversified combination of product and service functions, as well as the personalization of customer groups and the branding of the system, so as to provide customers with better services; The second is to build the advantages of the marketing system, Chinese Life has the most complete marketing channels, the largest sales force, the most extensive institutional outlets in China, and will further exert its IT advantages in this regard in the future, and enhance its capabilities through the combination of online and offline; The third is to build an ecological platform advantage, in terms of the ecological layout of "insurance +", promote the company to engage in post-economic compensation, change to risk intervention and pre-risk prevention in the event, and strengthen risk reduction management; The fourth is to build the advantages of capital utilization, take advantage of the characteristics of large scale, long duration and stable supply of insurance funds, allocate assets across cycles, provide long-term funds for social and economic development, and stabilize the company's investment income; The fifth is to build risk prevention and control advantages, build a good risk prevention and control system, and guard the bottom line of risks.

Zhao Peng

We will achieve the "six adherences" and deeply understand the long-term, complex and arduous nature of the reform, so as to continuously improve the systematic, integrated and coordinated nature of the reform

On the basis of Bai Tao's speech, Zhao Peng further summarized the focus of the next stage of life insurance companies, saying that they will strengthen it from six aspects, that is, to achieve "six adherences", including: insisting on serving the "great power of the country" without wavering, adhering to high-quality development without wavering, adhering to "customer-centric" without wavering, adhering to team building without wavering, adhering to reform and innovation without wavering, and adhering to risk prevention and control without wavering.

Among them, what is particularly noteworthy is that when talking about "adhering to the construction of the team without wavering", Zhao Peng said that the management of the cadre team and the sales team are very important, and they are the most valuable wealth of Chinese life.

Zhao Peng pointed out that from the perspective of the management team, in the future, the company will further increase the training of outstanding young cadres and create a management cadre team with excellent comprehensive quality, high professional level, good business performance and good management; At the same time, it will strengthen the construction of the sales team, adhere to the principle of "improving quality and stabilizing quantity", implement the "strong foundation plan", take the road of effective team-driven business development, and continue to consolidate the existing sales team.

Zhao Peng pointed out that 2022 is the third year of the implementation of the "Dingxin Project", which has basically achieved the set goals of laying the foundation in one year, building a framework in two years, and achieving results in three years since its implementation, which has played an important role in the stable development of the company. In the next step, the company will continue to deepen reform, focusing on marketing system reform, digital transformation, integrated operation, "product + service" model innovation, and improving risk prevention and control capabilities.

"Of course, the reform is not achieved overnight, nor can it be done in one battle, so the company will deeply understand the long-term, complex and arduous nature of the reform, so as to continuously improve the systematic, integrated and coordinated nature of the reform." Zhao Peng said.

Lee Ming Guang

The trading volume of American depositary shares is limited, and the delisting of US stocks will not affect the normal production and operation of the company, listing status and customer rights and interests

Recently, the news of Chinese Life's delisting from U.S. stocks has been particularly concerned by small and medium-sized investors in the capital market, according to reports, at present, Chinese Life has submitted Form 25 to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and September 1, 2022 will be the last date for the company's American Depositary Shares to trade on the New York Stock Exchange. In response to this question, Li Mingguang, vice president and chief actuary of Chinese Life, responded to market concerns.

He said that the Company's Board of Directors approved the Company's application to voluntarily delist the Company's American Depositary Shares from the New York Stock Exchange and revoked the registration of the American Depositary Shares and their corresponding H Shares under the Securities exchange law, mainly considering two aspects: First, the trading volume of the American Depositary Shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange is limited compared with the global trading volume of the Company's H Shares. Second, the American Depositary Shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and the administrative costs involved in maintaining the American Depositary Shares and the corresponding H Shares registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the company complying with the periodic reporting requirements stipulated by the U.S. securities laws and regulations and related business are higher.

He said that the company's American depositary shares are linked to H shares, after delisting from the United States, the company's H shares will continue to be traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, investors if they want, can convert the depositary shares into H shares to continue to hold the company's shares: "This delisting from the New York Stock Exchange does not involve the repurchase of depositary shares, will not change the company's share capital structure, and has no impact on the issuance of the company's H shares." At the same time, delisting from the United States does not affect the company's normal production and operation, corporate governance level, the company's listing status at home and abroad, and customer rights and interests. The company has established a sound internal management system such as corporate governance, information disclosure and internal control, audit, etc., and in the future, we will continue to promote the construction of corporate governance, practice the best practices of corporate governance, and continue to improve the company's governance level and governance efficiency. ”

Zhan Zhong

Talking about the reform of the insurance team must be linked to the business, and we cannot talk about the team

The reform of the personal insurance team has always been the focus of attention in the industry. In this regard, Zhan Zhong, vice president of Chinese Life, introduced the transformation strategy and phased results of the company's personal insurance channels.

He said that Chinese Life's strategy since the second half of 2021 has always been to "stabilize the amount and seek results in stability".

In terms of "stable and solid quantity", while controlling the fluctuation range, we will continue to increase production capacity. Judging from the current results, the predetermined target has been basically reached: the manpower scale has remained stable compared with the main industry, and the largest agent team in the market is still maintained, and the decline rate has been significantly narrowed. In the first half of the year, the overall decline of the "old seven" was 14%, and the Chinese life fell by about 9%, and from a month-on-month point of view, the Chinese life in June was only about 0.9% lower than in May, and the stability of the solidity was obvious.

In terms of "seeking efficiency in stability", in the first half of the year, the per capita first-year payment capacity of Chinese life increased by 60.6%, while the proportion of personnel with a college degree or above increased, and the retention rate of new people in 7 months and 13 months within one year also improved significantly, of which the 7-month retention rate increased by about 10%, and the 13-month retention rate increased more, reaching about 30%, and achieved relatively good results in quantity and quality.

Talking about the vigorous personal transformation, Zhan Zhong said: "Some companies talk about transformation often 'talk about the team on the team', only to say what measures will be taken in the transformation of the team, but I think the effectiveness of the team transformation must be combined with the business, because the effectiveness of the team transformation must ultimately be reflected through the business." Therefore, in recent years, we have been adhering to the development concept of "trinity" of team, business and technical management, and although the size of the team has declined, the market position is still stable. ”

Zhang Di

Judging the asset allocation must not be separated from the capital attributes and investment cycle, the goal of insurance fund management is in the long-term return, and it is inevitable to withstand short-term fluctuations

The decline in assets is one of the main reasons for the poor profit performance of life insurance companies in the first half of 2022, and therefore, public opinion has a strong interest in the asset allocation strategies of various insurance companies, and Zhang Di, assistant to the president and chief investment officer of Chinese Life, pointed out in response to relevant questions that when judging the investment behavior of institutions, they must not leave the capital attributes and investment cycles of the institutions themselves. For long-term insurance funds, short-term earnings fluctuations are not representative of long-term performance.

Zhang Di said that when paying attention to the asset allocation of insurance companies, we must pay attention to several prerequisites: First, when judging the investment behavior of an institution, it cannot be separated from the capital attributes and investment period of the institution itself; Second, the market is difficult to predict.

"First, we feel that since the market is unpredictable, it is difficult to set a specific plan, so we must follow the 'principle first' - rather than setting a plan, it is better to set a principle, for life insurance companies this principle is asset-liability matching, as long as we firmly grasp the principle of asset-liability matching, in our investment behavior, large-scale asset allocation has its anchor, we know our income target, what is our risk appetite, and then carry out large-scale asset allocation around this principle."

Second, we must have a 'barbell strategy' - the market should be very conservative and very stable, and the local can be bold and take risks. For insurance companies, we are stabilizing our long-term allocation by building a very stable portfolio of low risks and effectively matching liabilities, and at the same time, in the local area, we achieve an asymmetric combination through the allocation of risk assets, especially equity assets, to achieve the goal of 'anti-fragility'. We have also been arranging in accordance with this principle in specific investment operations.

Third, decentralization. This decentralization has several meanings, including decentralization in asset categories, decentralization in position structure, and decentralization of manager style. For so many years, we have continued to promote the marketization process of asset management, in addition to relying on investment managers in the system for large-scale asset allocation, we are also giving full play to the advantages of market-oriented management and building a diversified investment portfolio in order to obtain cross-cycle long-term stable returns.

Finally, for long-term investors, reverse thinking is particularly important, and reverse thinking is the magic weapon for long-term success. In the market environment of the first half of this year, we are starting from the principle of reverse thinking, the courage to enhance the equity position, to the equity allocation center, in order to obtain long-term stable returns - this process is actually very painful, because we need to bear short-term fluctuations with the market, so I hope that when we look at the investment problems of insurance companies, we can pull more long-term dimensions and see their long-term performance, rather than putting short-term fluctuations in a very important position. ”

Yang Hong

Digitalization reshapes operational processes, and every salesperson has become a mobile call center

With the continuous deepening of insurance reform and the improvement of the service demands of the whole society, insurance services have been more and more highly valued by customers, and the content and experience of services have even become key indicators affecting the market competitiveness of insurance companies, which puts forward higher requirements for the operation of insurance companies.

When talking about service-related topics, Yang Hong, vice president of Chinese Life, said that the company has always attached great importance to and paid great attention to the protection of consumer rights and interests and customer service, strengthened the top-level design for business planning, adhered to intensive, digital and diversified, and built a customer-centric operation service system to continuously meet the needs of customers in many aspects, while actively integrating with IT. After years of hard work, the company's operational efficiency and customer experience have been greatly improved.

According to Yang Hong, the operating model determines the efficiency and determines the ability of enterprise resources, Chinese Life has innovatively promoted the new "Rui operation" model of front-end multi-point contact, headquarters intelligent intensification, and comprehensive operation sharing, and through the landing of this model, the national integration of operational services has been realized, which has greatly improved efficiency. At present, the automatic review rate of Chinese life insurance policies has reached 99.9%, and the online underwriting rate has reached almost 100%.

In terms of improving customer delivery capabilities, Chinese Life has established 13 service contacts that combine online and offline, including life insurance APP with 120 million users (the APP provides almost all of Chinese life's services), offline customer service centers throughout the country, intelligent customer service that masters a large number of life insurance service knowledge maps, "air customer service" where customers can communicate with insurance tellers by video, etc., which have been highly recognized by customers, in addition, including WeChat, SMS, online customer service, Door-to-door service and other customer access methods.

Under the continuous improvement of the operation service system and the continuous improvement of efficiency, the sales staff of Chinese Life has benefited a lot, Yang Hong pointed out, "Each sales staff has become a mobile customer service center, through its mobile phone can provide customers with diversified services from underwriting to insurance services to claims." ”

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