The desire to become more agile in a fast-changing world is what got five UNIQA markets to join forces. Read more on the milestones of their transformation journey.
The story of the SEE transformation journey began in March 2022 with a strong vision that the five countries of Southeast Europe join together and become one advanced and modern region. Building on the cultural similarities and synergies, the SEE region has an excellent potential for further development, can react quickly and agilely, accepts daily technological changes, and contributes significantly to the profit growth of UNIQA Group. The region consists of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia and is led by Adel Bahtanović, President of the region. Currently, the region represents the third largest group of companies within UNIQA International, serves almost two million clients, has 1,700 employees, and generates more than 260 million euros in gross premiums.
Customers stand at the forefront of the region’s business. From designing the highest quality simplified products and providing the best possible services, data management, a forward-thinking and working, with a clear focus on innovation and more advanced IT solutions to investing in the community and sustainable development.
UNIQA wants to position itself in the region as a reliable partner for individuals, corporate clients and bank clients. We will work to strengthen awareness of the need to protect policyholders and provide simple and quick solutions to its clients. Our greatest asset are our employees in whose growth we constantly invest and with special attention develop their talents and skills. We place a special emphasis on digitization and data analysis in order to speed up and simplify processes, which are key to expanding our client portfolio as well as gaining a leadership position on the insurance market in the SEE region.
To make the whole process smoother transformation squads have been introduced. They have been the cornerstone of this journey from the very beginning. They are agile, fully autonomous, self-organizing, cross functional mixed teams from all five countries with full responsibilities and skills needed to create, implement and deliver certain end-to-end solution.
During the process, a transformation towards agile ways of working was introduced by changing collaboration and culture practices in the region.
With the commitment, participation, and support of the entire team, in the first eight months, the SEE region grew by 12% (compared to the same period in 2021), achieving the highest growth in the entire UNIQA Group.
The main drivers of this significant transformation are the colleagues in the region who work hard all the time, exchange knowledge and experience, constantly learn and improve, giving their maximum to support strategic initiatives for further growth and development in the region.
At the end of September, the first regional event that brought together leading people from the region was held in Sarajevo. Many additional joint activities are planned that will strengthen the unified approach. UNIQA Group provides full support to the region, which was confirmed by Wolfgang Kindl, member of the UNIQA Board for International Markets, with his presence in Sarajevo.
UNIQA Group is fully and long-term committed to SEE, which we expect to be an important contributor to growth and profit. During the past few months, many constructive ideas have emerged, which will certainly be useful and possibly applicable at the Group level. We grow together and learn from each other, all with the goal of meeting the needs of our clients.
As a symbol of the successful joint future, further growth and long-term investment in the SEE region and in accordance with the "UNIQA 3.0 – Seeding the Future" strategy, one tree will be planted by each employee in every country this autumn. This sums up to 1,700 trees in total, meaning 1,700 employees fulfilling the vision of one region with their heads, hearts and hands.
