Korea Life CEO Shin Eun-chul

By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter

People buy insurance so they can receive help when they are struggling financially. Shin Eun-chul, CEO and Vice Chairman of Korea Life, says this is the first of four lessons he learned from his 38 years in the insurance industry.

Not many people can claim more knowledge and experience in life insurance than Shin, who started his career in 1972. Almost four decades later and in the eighth year of his leadership at Korea Life, he wants his firm to focus on the basics of the business more than ever before.

Shin's management philosophy consists of four pillars, each represented by a four-letter Chinese idiom. The first of the four is "be faithful to your fundamentals." During the past several years, many life insurance firms have been diverting their businesses to other financial services. But despite what others do, Shin has put his focus on raising the competency of the life insurance itself.

For clients, the most important factor is whether they can receive a claim when they need it. Knowing this, Korea Life has maintained the most conservative investment portfolio among the big three insurers, with the portion of fixed-income bonds the highest and the portion of risky stock investment the lowest. It is not surprising that the company has kept its AAA rating for three years from the two major credit rating agencies in Korea.

The second virtue is craftsmanship. Shin says that Korea Life employees should not be shy of feeling proud that they can, and are, raising the insurance business into a work of art.

The third pillar is to "think as if you are your counterpart." It is easier to determine what you have done wrong if you think from the perspective of your competitor or of customer.

The last of the four virtues is to "change and innovate." This is not about transforming an insurance company into something more fashionable and fancier, such as an investment bank, for example. Shin's idea is that employees have to be consistently vigilant about how the world is changing and how to place themselves ahead of the curve.

cjs@koreatimes.co.kr