By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter

Not many volleyball fans were surprised when Samsung Fire & Marine took another champion's trophy in the V-League's regular season last Sunday. The club has been the dominant force in the Korean volleyball league for a long time, winning 21 trophies in various leagues and tournaments since its inception 15 years ago.

Its parent company may be learning from the success of its volleyball team. The insurer has been the unarguable champion in its own league ― the non-life insurance market ― and now wants to lift its status into that of a major global player. The goal is to become one of top 10 major insurers in the world within the next 10 years. To achieve that, it has to study how to mix and match the strengths of local and overseas operations, and create a more efficient and sustainable global business platform.

From that aspect, this year will be a crucial year. Several media, including China's Xinhua news agency, reported that the Korea's No.1 player is planning to tap the Chinese automobile insurance market as early as the first half of this year by selling products to locals.

China is a fast growing market for auto and other types of insurance. But it is never an easy target. About a dozen foreign insurance companies have tried to make inroads into the Chinese car insurance sector, but none of them have had noticeable success. Samsung needs to do something different.

Look Beyond Korea

Samsung Fire & Marine was founded in 1952, and is the leader in the non-life insurances market, including the automobile, fire and marine, travel and retirement insurances.

The first overseas office was set up in 1978 in London, the world's capital of the insurance industry. Seven years later the company opened an office in New York, followed by one in Tokyo, Ho Chi Minh City, Beijing and Jakarta.

The Asian financial crisis of 1997 has made the firm to reassess its global strategy. So far, it was focused on qualitative growth without having solid profit models and coherent risk-control systems. To fix the problems, the management has reshuffled the global operations and adopted new risk assessment programs for each branch.

In 2005, the company established its Chinese subsidiary in Shanghai, which was the first for a foreign company to do so. As of last February, it now has three subsidiaries, five branches and seven liaison offices in nine countries all over the world.

The foreign operations are grouped in four regions ― China, Europe, North America and non-Chinese emerging markets. The easiest and most apparent target clients are the Korean companies and immigrants. But beginning from China, it aims to sell more products to indigenous population.

The company expects the number of registered cars in China will soar to 150 million by 2020, considering that some 13 million cars were sold in 2009 alone. Auto insurance market too has expanded in a dazzling speed, growing by an average of 24 percent over the past three years.

But the company believes its real strength lies in defense, not in offense, just like in volleyball Samsung's real strength lies in its watertight defense lineup composed of veteran receivers and setters, not in its flamboyant attackers.

Samsung is known for its meticulous quality control in all industry sectors and insurance is not an exception.

With 58 years of data collected from the Korean market and over 10 years of experience from China, Indonesia and Vietnam, it knows from its heart that standardized risk-assessment system and profit-oriented business mindset is the most important in this industry.

So far, the company seems to have ingredients for success. Its ability in risk management is unparalleled in the industry ― it is rated A+ by Standard and Poor for seventh consecutive year, and for eighth straight years by A.M. Best. Risk-related ratios also show that the firm has one of the safest financial structure and investment portfolios in the industry.

Growth is surprisingly strong in both revenue and profit, with the average growth rates of 9.1 percent and 28.6 percent, respectively, since 2003. Return on equity, a barometer of the firm's operational efficiency on its equities, has also continuously improved to 16.5 percent in 2008 from 7.0 percent in 2003.

cjs@koreatimes.co.kr