How Bhargav Dasgupta positioned ICICI Lombard as a leader in the insurance space

In September 2023, Bhargav Dasgupta stepped down from his role as CEO and MD at ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company after 14 long years. During that tenure, he achieved significant milestones that laid the foundation for increased transparency and accountability in the industry. Under his leadership, ICICI Lombard became the first general insurance company to be listed on the bourses in 2017.

“We are a listed company, very focussed on transparency and disclosure. The challenge was that most of our competitors were unlisted, and they didn’t have the same demands on them in terms of disclosure and transparency. I strongly believe that companies should list after 10 years because the discipline of listing is good for the industry,” says Dasgupta.

For the insurance veteran, the listing was just one of the many highlights. His easy-going demeanour helped in the seamless merger of Bharti AXA General Insurance with ICICI Lombard, a feat accomplished swiftly after receiving final approval from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) in September 2021. After the merger, ICICI Lombard quickly rose to become the second-largest general insurer in terms of gross direct premium underwritten. By December 2023, it had captured an impressive 8.76% of the market, coming in second behind the state-owned The New India Assurance Co., which held 13.33% market share.

Dasgupta believes in hard work, and this is reflected in the numbers. Under his leadership, the gross premium of ICICI Lombard surged to more than  `21,000 crore in FY23 from `3,457 crore in FY09, and profit after tax (PAT) grew 78 times during the same period—from `22 crore to `1,729 crore, a remarkable CAGR of 36.5%. Over the past three years, the company’s premium earned (net) and net profit have grown at a CAGR of 16% and 13%, respectively. This performance has led to Dasgupta being crowned the winner in the Brokers, Mutual Funds & Insurance category of the BT-PwC India’s Best CEOs ranking this year.

The 57-year-old management graduate from IIM Bangalore took charge of the insurer in 2009, but his association with the group dates back to 1992, when he joined what was then ICICI as a Senior General Manager. He held different positions within the group, including serving as Executive Director in ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. During his long tenure at ICICI Lombard, Dasgupta achieved remarkable success before stepping down on September 21, 2023, to explore an international career opportunity. At present, he is the Vice President (Market Solutions) of the Asian Development Bank in Manila.

Dasgupta has accomplished much more than just growing the business through acquisitions. He led a major change at ICICI Lombard, shifting the company’s focus from wholesale to the retail business. “Our focus was on doing what was right while balancing growth and profitability. We focussed on building the retail health lines and were more disciplined in the motor segment,” says Dasgupta.

To boost growth in the retail health segment, he devised a plan centred around recruiting agency managers who then hired agents to drive business. When it came to claims, the loss ratio in the health segment (including travel and personal accident) for ICICI Lombard increased to 80% in 9MFY24 from 77% in FY23. Despite the rise in claims in the health segment, the combined ratio stayed within the target range at 103.7%.

ICICI Lombard dominates the motor insurance business, with a market share of 12% as of December 2023, which is also the primary component of its product mix at 37%. Considering Own Damage pricing is far more aggressive in motor insurance, Dasgupta says he took a cautious approach to writing businesses in that segment.
Digital was another focus area for Dasgupta. He championed technological innovation for ICICI Lombard’s competitiveness and expansion. “We were the first company to go completely in the cloud. It gave us the ability to think about how to be agile, nimble, and future-ready. So, investing in technology and going into new lines of business such as retail health while staying disciplined helped us grow,” says Dasgupta.

He also separated ICICI Lombard’s digital division to compete like a start-up. ICICI Lombard’s “IL TakeCare” app has achieved 8.5 million downloads as of December 2023 from 4.6 million in March 2023, which is an indication of its growing digital prowess. He also led efforts to expedite claims processing, improve service delivery, and foster a culture of responsiveness and empathy in the organisation, knowing that customer happiness is key to long-term success. Thanks to these measures, ICICI Lombard’s complaints as a percentage of policies issued dropped from 0.56% to a mere 0.01% during his tenure.

Throughout his career, Dasgupta has exemplified the qualities of a visionary leader, strategic thinker, and transformational change agent. He was one of the leaders who initiated dialogue with the regulator for dismantling the third-party motor insurance pool due to its rising losses. Talking about his vision for the company, Dasgupta quips, “I don’t want to give my vision, as I don’t want to cast a shadow on Sanjiv Mantri’s [the new CEO] thought process, and it’s unfair to him. So, yeah, I just think that the organisation continues to do well. That’s all I can say.”
As he continues to chart new paths and explore new horizons, Dasgupta’s legacy will continue to steer the company ahead.     
     
@teena_kaushal