From Naples to chief executive of Wales’ only FTSE 100 firm, Admiral, Milena Mondini de Focatiis says its a position she never coveted with her motivation more focused on problem solving than job status and that despite advances in technology believes the group will remain a major employer.
Milena, who joined Admiral in 2007 to become chief executive of its Italian venture ConTE, took up the role at the helm of the car insurance to loans group in January – succeeding David Stevens, a co-founder of the Cardiff-headquartered firm, which employs 7,500 in Wales with its other offices in Swansea and Newport.
It marked the first chief executive who wasn’t at the start of the extraordinary journey of Admiral – a journey which began selling car insurance over the phone back in 1991 – with Chicago-born Henry Engelhardt having stood down as CEO in 2016.
The business, which employs 11,000 globally and last year generated revenues of £3.4bn, also has operations in France, Spain, India and the US.
Despite uncertainties over the long-term outlook for its core car insurance business – assuming a mass adoption of autonomous vehicles reducing accidents and premiums – Admiral is not waiting to see what happens, but is taking affirmative action by continuing to diversify and even has an effective research and development company, Admiral Pioneer, to develop new products and companies.
It has, after all, sustained growth and agility built into its DNA, with the pragmatism of knowing when to invest and divest.
A case in point was the recent sale of its global price comparison sites – though not the US – which included Cardiff-based Confused.com that came under Penguin Portals, to Zoopla for £500m.
Milena believes that Admiral also has a key role to play in south Wales’ emerging fintech sector, which has been identified as a 海角视频 leading cluster with significant growth and high-skill job creation prospects.
Most Read
At the start of the pandemic, Admiral faced the challenge of moving the vast majority of its global workforce to a predominantly remote-working model that not only satisfied regulators, but achieved buy-in from customers and employees.
Reflecting on the past 16 months, having taking up the role of chief executive designate at the outbreak of the pandemic in March last year, Milena said: “I think our staff have literally been amazing.
“I have been blown away by those have been working from their bedrooms for months with levels of dedication that was really unprecedented to make sure they are delivering for customers and in helping each other when colleagues have had problems like Covid issues.
“I think we did incredibly well, to be honest, in terms of making sure staff were always at the centre of the decision-making thinking and in supporting our customers. We also did much more in supporting communities that needed it the most.
“However, I still wonder if we learned enough and how we could be even more focused in the future.”
As for the its future way of working and what implications it has for it long-term leased offices in Cardiff, Newport and Swansea, she said: “I think the hybrid model is going to be the decision for the majority of corporates and is going to be for us, too.
“However, we have to test and learn, but we are happy to embrace the hybrid model. Some people will be more keen to go back into the office than others, while some people are keen to be home all the time, while others want a mix. It is complex, but I think it can work well.”
Don’t miss
She said though it was too early to assess the firm’s office space requirements, which will be considered over the coming months.
Asked if she ever thought about one day becoming chief executive of the group that now has a market capitalisation of more than £9bn, Milena said: “I wouldn’t say I always wanted to be chief executive, but neither was it a case that I didn’t want it.
“I think in general, though, I am not a person motivated much by role.
“What I really look for is the project and the responsibilities and having an impact. Henry [Engelhardt] and David [Stevens] from the very early days were very supportive and gave me a lot of exposure to the board and the group strategy. So, they did prepare me very well, but it is not something that I consciously seek in my life [top roles]. Progress has always come, but more from responsibility and the excitement of the project.”
But what sort of leader would she describe herself as?
Milena, who before becoming CEO was head of insurance for Admiral in the 海角视频 and EU, said: “I think my management style has been very much shaped in Admiral as I have worked so long in the company. So there is a lot of Admiral inheritance in it.
“I am very team-minded and to be quite inclusive. I love to interact with the team and I am very lucky to have amazing people around me.
“I am also an engineer so I like the intellectual challenge of having a new problem and bringing people with different expertise around to work out what the solution is going to be and ideally creating something that will work without me.
“The other thing people would say is that I am always a glass-half-full person. I tend to see the good in things, but also in people. Sometimes I say I almost ‘get in love’ with every person I work with in the sense that there are always those little things and features and abilities that you really like and can love. I think helping other people to see the same in their teams mates is what really unlocks the power and diversity of the team.”
But that doesn’t mean that she cannot make tough decisions when things are not working out.
She is also conscious of the need to get more women into senior roles, although this is not an issue at Admiral where many of its global executives are women and half of its board is female, including its chair, Annette Court.
Milena said: “The data shows that there is a problem, and although we are making a lot of progress, there is still a legacy of that culture and in different countries to a varying extent. There are a lot of things companies can do to solve this. To me a lot is about recruiting and identifying talent.
“It is about getting under the skin of people beyond the level of confidence they project, as this is an area sometimes where women don’t project as much as men in the recruiting space, and then supporting them through all stages within the company. It is also of course about leading by example and so forth.
“But there are also more fundamental things like childcare where in the 海角视频 it is extremely expensive and I think people struggle and many women have to take time out.”
On her personal experiences, the single mum, who has an 11-year-old son, said: “It is always a bit of a juggle, but to be honest from that perspective [Admiral support] I don’t think I would have been able to have senior roles in other companies.”
On cultural working differences in other countries where Admiral operates, Milena said:“Yes of course there are differences.
“In the 海角视频 there are processes for everything and, say in Italy, there is always a way to ‘skip the queue,’ but the reality is in terms of Admiral wherever we go we have the same values and ethics. When you get into the office it doesn’t matter whether you are in Cardiff or Rome, you always know you are entering an Admiral office.
“The energy and what you see on the walls, the communications and interactions are really very similar. And that is one of the big successes in that we have managed to export our culture to different countries very effectively.”
While offering a myriad of roles from claims to IT, is there a specific type of person that Admiral looks to recruit?
Milena said: “Recruitment is probably the biggest driver of company culture.
“It is incredibly important and it is not always easy to get it right, as well as which type of person should progress in their careers and when you have to sometimes be tough with the ones that will not.
“In terms of characteristics the ability to adapt, flexibility and being open-minded is fundamental.
“Ethics, shared values and transparency are also fundamental traits for me when I interview.
“We always say that the Admiral door is not very high and people with a big ego will just not pass through.
“So, it’s about people that are clearly motivated, but in seeking to have a positive impact they act as a team rather than an individual and making sure we put the good of the company and team achievement first.”
On the impact of driverless vehicles on the car insurance market, Milena takes a pragmatic view.
It could see insurance more geared to cover vehicle default than accidents, with technology removing human error.
Milena said: “It is a fascinating topic, but I think mass autonomous cars on our streets is still some way away and at least a decade-plus, but definitely we are looking at this.
“It will take time to develop and we want to make sure that we start now and we are already doing a few things.
“So, for me there are three elements to tackle. One is making sure that the core business is leveraging the benefits of technological improvements and new data and analytics available, so as it really evolves we are underwriting electric vehicles and cars with more autonomous features.
“The other element, and which is probably one of the biggest things that we are focusing on more recently, is the development of new business. This is a way of mitigating the risks, but also a way of engaging more with customers, understanding them better and developing a better proposition. We also are looking at multi-insurance proposition.”
One example of this new approach is its temporary and learner driver insurance venture Veygo.
As part of its diversification, one area where Admiral sees significant growth potential is its loans business.
The chief executive, who although born in Naples also spent time living in Rome and Milan, said: “Loans is one of the most interesting projects as well as the growing of other insurance lines in the 海角视频 like household which is expanding really fast. I am a big believer in the potential of those businesses.
“We also have a new entity for group, Admiral Pioneer, which is a mobile, agile and cloud way of working. It has smart features and the objective is really to test new propositions.
“For example, we recently came up with something new for us in tool insurance cover for small businesses. So, we now have a company that is there to really test and develop new propositions for which we have a strong pipeline.”
With advances in automation, digitalisation and AI, can Admiral continue to employ thousands of people not just in Wales, but globally?
Milena said: “A very important part of our niche is that we employ a lot of people and making sure they have a great working environment to improve themselves and provide value to the wider community.
“ I am not worried in the sense that I think that historically we have always delivered growth. Yes, it is true that digitaliation and automation are more efficient, but our plan is that we want to continue to grow and so far this increase in digitalisation has always been an evolution rather than a revolution.
“We have always been able to expand our business. So, this is not something I worry about in the short-term.”
On the wider potential of south Wales’ fintech sector, she said: “It was nice to see insurance being part of the cluster and I hope that Admiral Pioneer is going to play a role in supporting new business ideas and potential jobs.
“We have signed up the 海角视频 fintech pledge and we also support Fintech Wales. We also need to make sure we promote and support the role of women in tech and have a good pipeline of women for those type of jobs and roles, which is part of supporting greater diversity in the workplace.”
On the issue of climate change how does she square, despite a move toward electric vehicles and the phasing out of diesel and petrol models, making money from insuring vehicles that pollute?
She said: “I want to be able to look at my children and tell them that we [Admiral] have done all we could to help them.
“One of the roles that Admiral can play is becoming a greater underwriter of electric vehicles or green options. We have an innovation that is helping green fleets and we are investing to provide good insurance and price for electric vehicles. More generally it is about supporting the transition to greener mobility options, but still providing insurance that is more convenient. I think that is part of what we can do.”
On the threat of climate change and the global response to reduce emissions, she said: “Probably we should have acted more determinedly sooner.
“I want to believe that with the pace of change and improvement in technology we can recoup some of the time we have lost. I think the level of focus has increased dramatically in the last 18 months and Covid has given a big push to that in terms of helping people to think more about the long term, but also in helping people to think that we can live differently.
“I think it has given a lot of confidence in our ability to adapt and just doing things differently. There is a lot of consultation that needs to be done at a governmental level to be able to make this change. It is also fantastic to see the financial community being so committed to it and a lot of our shareholders are really keen as well. So, I think there is a momentum.”
Admiral, since its float back in 2004, has ensured that staff share in the financial performance of the business and have consistently received the maximum bonus of up to £3,600 in shares each year.
Does she see a link between equity and improved engagement and productivity levels, or is this perhaps a naive view with a myriad of other contributing factors?
She said: “It is not naive at all. I think it is all about alignment of interests. It makes our jobs much easier if management and staff row in the same direction and when everyone does you just go faster and can do so much more.
“Being a shareholder is a symbol and evidence of this, but it is also about caring for each other and looking over each other’s shoulders. And when you get this amazing alignment of interests, it just makes everything easier with an absence of politics and this common sense of purpose.”
On Admiral’s US businesses she remains positive. It has a price comparison business as well as car insurance operating in a number of states.
She said: “It is a different and challenging market, but we are very pleased with the recent progress, so while a challenge, it is also the biggest opportunity as it is the biggest market. So, we will require more time and investment to reach scale, but we have a very strong team and we are committed to success.”
Sign up to the BusinessLive Wales newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn
As well as an in-depth early morning newsletter, we will be sending out regular breaking news email alerts. To sign up to this service
And, follow us on to catch the latest stories and to network with the Welsh business community.
On expansion in other parts of Europe, she said: “It is not really on the radar and the priority for me is to deepen our relationship with customers in existing geographies in offering more products and with a better proposition.. that is really the primary goal.”
And on her work-life balance, she said: “I try to have breakfast and dinner at home with my son, and more recently I have been much more at home, of course. I come from a big traditional Italian family so getting together with them and friends is a big part of my year plan.
“As a singe parent there is lot about keeping up and being relaxed that my son is going to beat me at every possible sport. I like table and furniture design and, more recently, sculptures. I have a lot of lot of interests, but not one that is predominant.”