'Korea is my second home country'

BNP Paribas Cardif Life CEO Benoit Meslet speaks during a recent interview in his office in Seoul. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

BNP Paribas Cardif Life CEO values emotional intelligence

By Lee Kyung-min

BNP Paribas Cardif Life CEO Benoit Meslet, a father of two children and a husband to a Korean wife, believes having a family with two different cultural backgrounds has helped him become more understanding about others, a principle for his personal life that extends to his business philosophy.

The much-desired but easily overlooked quality has helped him successfully lead a company that prioritizes diversity, a much-touted value among leading global firms.

“Having a multi-cultural family has taught me that there are always different ways to look at a situation and that it is important to understand others’ perspectives and motivations before rushing to conclusions,” he said in an interview with The Korea Times.

Born in France, Meslet have lived overseas for the past 20 years including in Korea, the U.S. Hong Kong and Japan.

His first experience with Korea dates back to before the financial crisis in 1997 when he was a young engineering trainee at the time.

He spent six months working in a research institute in Kiheung, Gyeonggi Province and has lived in Korea for a total of nine years.

“I have built strong roots in Korea as my wife is Korean and my two sons were born in Busan. I consider Korea as my second home country.”

He returned to Korea after living in Japan to help his children appreciate their dual cultural heritage.

“I want them to experience as much as possible of the Korean culture and traditions during our stay in Korea so that they become confident with their own identity. This is the reason why we have decided to come back to Korea after many years living in Japan.”

His decision followed a personal conviction that a diversity of experiences makes people more tolerant of others, which ultimately benefits the society at large.

“It is certainly a challenge when everyone’s core beliefs are rooted in their cultural upbringing and life experiences. But starting from a blank sheet and listening first when tackling complex problems certainly make managing in a multicultural context more interesting and rewarding.”

Such a firm belief not only applies to parenting but also to how he manages the firm, a task that bears commonalities as they ultimately involve constant human interactions.

“At BNP Paribas Cardif, we believe that a diverse workforce is an asset because it brings about a more creative and intellectually challenging environment where people can learn from each other.”

When people realize that their voice is heard and respected, he believes, they are more likely to involve themselves actively.

This is essentially a prerequisite for innovation which requires creating a safe environment to help people feel free to share their opinion.

“I look for people who listen first, are willing to understand others’ perspective and are able to craft mutually-beneficial solutions. Also, people with a growth mindset -- those who think that they can develop their talents through continuous learning and do not fear of taking risks and making mistakes along the way -- do well in this environment.”

The traits are crucial in fast changing business circumstances amid digitalization, defined by rapid technological developments and customers’ expectation and needs that become just as much diverse.

It is also in line with the company brand motto, the “insurer for a changing world.”

“Customer expectations are changing faster than ever before. This means that what was true yesterday will likely not work tomorrow. We need to stay alert to anticipate their needs.”

He believes the company will work best when the management leads by example.

“It comes from the tone at the top. If you can’t ask people to engage and be motivated and passionate about their work, you deceive yourself if you’re not showing these attitudes in daily work.”

This is why he asks all his management members to lead in a way that obviously takes more effort.

“I tend to behave and speak the same way to everybody in the company regardless of their seniority, wage or agenda because it is very important for me to make sure that everybody feels that they are part of the company and that they have something to bring to the company. That is because ultimately we can all succeed together.”

Strong niche market player

Meslet did acknowledge that Korea has limited growth opportunities as insurance penetration is high, with the market remaining stagnant over the past five years after a rapid recovery in the wake of the global financial crisis in late 2000s.

However, he sees ample opportunity in the industry involving new, data- and digital devices-backed insurance services.

In the past, some companies restricted claims payments to increase their revenues in what he considers a deeply flawed approach damaging customer trust, the foundation of his business.

But now, the insurance industry is moving from providing support in the event of unexpected life events to preventing such events from occurring in the first place by making smarter use of digital devices and data.

“Customers will benefit from solutions that drive and reward healthy behavior. This is clearly an area with tremendous potential, which lies at the core of what we stand for as an industry.”

The firm under his leadership will continue to expand its product line-up and distribution footprint via joint projects with Korean firms in 2019.

“We have started selling variable insurance products through Woori Bank in February and we now cover all major domestic banks in Korea. We have also developed a new range of investment solutions available through general agencies from this year.”

An integrated service between the firm and KakaoTalk, the messaging service operated by Kakao Corp., is an example how the global insurer can find an opportunity through digital innovation, he added.

Through customer experience improvement service, 50 percent of customers receive policy information exclusively through KakaoTalk.

In 2018, the firm released a rule-based chatbot on KakaoTalk to let customers make inquiries at their convenience.

It was also the first life insurer that adopted KakaoPay authentication to let customers log on to its apps easily without the use of a public certificate.

The integration, touted by the global audience within the global insurer as a best practice example, is also in line with “digital innovation” the firm’s core strategy much from global peers.

BNP Paribas operates Hello Bank. The first 100 percent digital mobile bank in Europe now serves 3 million customers in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Austria.

Meslet expects the joint projects will strengthen the firm’s standing in Korea, where it is known for offering investment and retirement preparation solutions through banks leveraging its global product expertise and partnership experience.

Its products include first Equity-Linked Security (ELS) Variable Life Insurance to help customers secure additional income in retirement.

It also developed insurance product that incorporates low-cost Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF) and automatically rebalances assets on a periodic basis based on the professional advice of a well-known asset management firm.

The firm’s sound financial position and strong risk management discipline will help gain customers’ trust and support in the long-term, he believes.

The firm is capitalized with a risk based capital ratio of 351 percent in September 2018, the third highest among life insurers in Korea.

“We are not pursuing top-line growth at all costs. Protecting our brand reputation and building customer trust are paramount. Our priority is to be financially sound and stable so that customers in times of need can be confident that we will be there for them.”

Appreciating regulator’s efforts

He said the Korean financial regulators have a clear focus, two objectives also prioritized by his company -- financial inclusion and consumer protection.

“Consumer protection is something we have put our priorities on. Financial inclusion is very important to BNP Paribas. It is actually one of the most important priorities for BNP Paribas in all countries we operate as to make insurance accessible to as many people as possible.”

Such a government policy is in line with the company’s effort to make insurance policy easy to understand.

“It is true that there have been some abuse in the past. But we have not waited for the financial regulators to tell us that. Our team has made tremendous efforts to simplify the wording of our policies to make sure that we use simple plain language so that people understand what they are purchasing.”

He highly assessed the government’s recent regulatory moves to a process he called “finding the right balance.”

“What I am impressed with Korean regulatory authorities in general is that they look outside to look at what is happening outside of Korea. They do a lot of research to understand the pros and cons of different regulatory regime.”

The government’ review of policies in Singapore is a valid case in point.

“Now the question is how do you transport that into the Korean market taking into account the need to foster innovation and at the same time to protect consumers. There is no right or wrong recipe. It's just about fine balance. We are watching and this is going in that right direction from my perspective,” he added.