The British Insurance Brokers’ Association(BIBA) has proposed an overhaul of its governance structure and a new model for segmenting its membership in order to provide them with a more tailored approach better suited to their representation needs.
The proposed moves are some of the first to emerge from a full-scale review of BIBA’s strategy and how it responds to its membership which was launched in 2012. The aim of the strategic review was to build on BIBA’s already strong foundations to ensure that the trade association was strong and fit for purpose to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Consultants Deloitte were appointed to assist BIBA in that process.
The six workstreams of the review are in the following key areas: Board Governance; Executive team and resource; Segmentation of members ‘One voice’(how BIBA communicates with its stakeholders and speaks in a unified voice for the broker); Commercial activities; and a possible Code of Conduct.
Creating recommendations from the strategic review involved visits to all thirteen of the association’s regions where invaluable feedback has been gained from members. This feedback has allowed the workstreams to develop proposals, which BIBA believes will ensure the right structure to best serve members in the future.
Andy Homer, BIBA’s chairman, who also headed up the steering group which has been guiding the strategic review, said:
“The BIBA Board are now in position to discuss in detail how the proposed reforms to make our association more relevant to its members are to be implemented.
The next phase of consultation will help to validate our proposals, and then we need to move ahead with implementation. There is still much work to be done and I welcome engagement and feedback from all members."
The key proposals so far are:
-Recommending a new model which separates members into five broad segments, namely: Small firms North with a turnover of less than £1m; Small firms South with a turnover of less than £1m; Larger firms with a turnover of greater than £1m; Networks, aggregators, MGAs and other distributors; and UK nationals, London Market and international members. Each segment will have representation on the main Board.
-Recommending an overhaul of BIBA’s main Board structure, altering its size and constitution to better reflect how BIBA segments its membership. BIBA proposes that the main Board should have 10 to 12 members in future comprising: A chairman; a deputy chairman; an independent non-executive director; the BIBA ceo plus two others from the Executive; and the balance of the Board made up of member representatives whose selection is based upon the proposed five segments mentioned in the new model. There will also be new structures to support the revised Board, more of which will be revealed shortly.
BIBA will be launching a three month consultation with members about the governance and segmentation proposals later this year to ensure that their views are heard. This will be followed by an Extraordinary General Meeting at which the BIBA membership will have the opportunity to vote on the proposals before them.
New BIBA chief executive saidSteve White said “We want as many BIBA members as possible to participate in the forthcoming consultation. Conference provides an ideal opportunity for our members to come together to discuss the proposals and really thrash things out. This discussion is vital, it’s their trade organisation after all and it’s important that they approve of the proposals to shape BIBA’s future.
The involvement of BIBA’s members will ensure that this review is a success and that together we achieve our aim of making BIBA one of the UK’s most admired trade associations with a bright future ahead of it.”
The activities of the other workstreams are important and ongoing and will increase in momentum once the outcomes of the governance and segmentation consultation become clearer.
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