So, while we at Nexus are living and breathing our strategy, it’s difficult sometimes to present a coherent formula that encompasses everything we do and explain how it came about. Strategy is only one element of success; operational excellence is another, and in a highly fragmented market like ours, implementation of strategy is a core capability.
All strategy starts in the marketplace – first and foremost, a company needs a customer. When Nexus looks at the marketplace for retail financial services in the Middle East, it sees in excess of ten million people, most of whom are expats.
Next, what are Nexus’s capabilities to satisfy this marketplace? Nexus is an independent brokerage with four core capabilities:
• The provision of retail financial services and products to the community
• The creation of a ‘one-stop shop’ approach for retail customers, through which the bulk of their insurance and savings/investment needs can be met
• The recruitment, leadership, management and support of financial advisers
• The development of a governance-based infrastructure that underpins the continuous provision of services and products through ‘thick and thin’.
This governance-based infrastructure includes:
o Financial prudence
o The provision of best advice
o Training and competence
o Board oversight
Nexus’ success over the years starts to pre-determine the strategy –the bigger and more successful we become, the more we reflect the market we serve. We have become more generalist than specialist (specialism, we think, constrains growth). We serve everyone and anyone.
When we study the expat market, we find that its members have financial needs and financial clout. Why do ex-pats come to the Middle East?
Generally, to make money, support family in their home country and to improve their personal and family circumstances – they want to build wealth. Further, they start in roles without many of the basic financial services needs being satisfied, so they need to make personal provision.
However, identifying a suitable marketplace is a long way from being able to serve it profitably. As a broker, Nexus depends for its success ultimately on being able to provide tailored face-to-face advice to each individual retail customer.
“Mirror the market”
People take advice from people they can trust, and the most trustworthy adviser is likely to come from your own community. So strategically speaking, we have to mirror the market composition. Nexus’s client portfolio is a diverse mix of nationalities and almost exactly mirrors its large team of advisers.
Providing face-to-face financial advice is a core capability for nexus. This necessitates a whole host of sub-capabilities without which it could not survive, such as recruitment, training, and leadership to name a few.
The recruitment of financial advisers is of special strategic importance. If our ‘primary market’ is the retail customer, then our ‘secondary market’ is the financial adviser. Strategically, we see financial advisers as our customers too.
“Core capability”
Identifying, recruiting, and inducting financial advisers is a core capability – and we believe that the financial adviser determines the market to a large extent, rather than merely mirroring it. To be successful in all economic environments, advisers should be highly proactive, energetic and persistent. Because of our broad demographic appeal, we have followed a strategy of providing products that cater to all tastes – for example, Takaful for some Muslim clients is essential.
However, our development has broadened our appeal – critical illness insurance, medical insurance (individual and group) and commercial general insurance (motor, travel, house contents), employee benefits and corporate insurance. These segments extend our capabilities, enabling us to compete more effectively.
Technology is a massive strategic component in financial services.
Like most brokerages, Nexus uses it extensively within every aspect of our operations. Increasingly we are taking this into the marketplace, for example by developing a price comparison web-site for the growing do-it-yourself segment.
In summary, Nexus’ strategy is to serve the community at large, rather than any narrow demographic; to provide a comprehensive product range; to grow organically through the recruitment and support of high quality financial advisers who make their own market; and to run the business prudently through a governance-based infrastructure.
