{"id":457452,"date":"2020-12-15T16:41:26","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T14:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=457452"},"modified":"2020-12-24T12:34:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T10:34:08","slug":"30-years-30-stories-looking-ahead-by-learning-from-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/industry-news\/457452\/30-years-30-stories-looking-ahead-by-learning-from-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"30 years, 30 stories &#8211; Looking ahead by learning from the past"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>\u201cEvery success story is a tale of constant adaption, revision and change.\u201d <\/em>\u2013 Richard Branson<\/p>\n<p>Complicated by regulations, legalities and traditional models, the financial services sector is well known for being a difficult nut to crack.<\/p>\n<p>It takes a certain level of trust to invest one\u2019s hard-earned money with a company &#8211; trust that promises to not grow one\u2019s wealth and plan for a financially stable future.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fedgroup.co.za\/?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_campaign=Fedgroup&amp;utm_term=December_2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Click here to learn more about Fedgroup&#8217;s wide range of financial solutions.<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>2020 undoubtedly came as a shock to the world\u2019s population. On one hand, people had to cope with the imminent threat to their and their loved ones\u2019 health brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, they were faced with the devastating financial implications on the country\u2019s already struggling economy, as a result of our national lockdown measures and mandatory social distancing.<\/p>\n<p>This lethal combination brought business to a standstill for a large portion of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, as a result, many businesses have had to reduce their workforce, adapt to working remotely and, in some cases, even close their doors.<\/p>\n<p>But, as Fedgroup celebrates its 30th birthday this year, the company has taken the time to reflect on lessons learnt over the past three decades, which saw an incredible change to society at large.<\/p>\n<p>From the dawn of democracy in SA to the advent of digitisation that would change the size and shape of financial services across the sector, Fedgroup has seen a lot.<\/p>\n<p>While a one-in-a-hundred-year event is as new to Fedgroup as it is to the rest of the world, the business\u2019 history holds some valuable lessons for companies both large and small.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><strong>1. \u2018No\u2019 is not an answer \u2013 always look for ways to make things happen<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>One of the biggest hurdles facing both clients and financial services providers is the ever-changing regulatory environment in which everyone must operate.<\/p>\n<p>When Fedgroup founder and current chairman John Field started the company in 1990, authorities told him that, in no uncertain terms, his idea of forming a privately owned financial services institution was not possible.<\/p>\n<p>There was simply no precedent at that time for a privately-owned company to have a license to provide financial services.<\/p>\n<p>Having a keen understanding of business and always keeping the bigger picture in mind, John\u2019s fighting spirit took over, and he sold 65% of his business to Fedbond while holding on to the remaining 35%. When Fedsure went under a few years later, John had pre-emptive rights to buy the healthy part of the business.<\/p>\n<p>Today, this is Fedgroup and the company has grown from strength to strength, now employing a team of over 150 Fedgroup employees.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><strong>2. Treating clients fairly sometimes means revising conventional processes and wisdom<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><em>\u201cMy mother used to tell me that, when push comes to shove, you always know who to turn to. That being a family isn\u2019t a social construct, but an instinct.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Jodi Picoult<\/p>\n<p>One of Fedgroup\u2019s biggest distinguishing factors is the way in which Fedgroup conducts business. This philosophy is their ability to put people before profit.<\/p>\n<p>COVID-19 has undoubtedly brought new challenges to Fedgroup\u2019s claims assessment, including a deeper effort to understand what it means to treat customers fairly amidst a global pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>For example, many medical insurance claims require hospitals to complete medical forms for insurers to consider.<\/p>\n<p>However, in the current crisis hospitals are rightly devoting their time and resources to the fight against COVID-19 which means insurance medical processes like completing forms or supply copies of medical records are taking a backseat.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on this, Heather Patton, Chairperson of Fedgroup\u2019s claims committee, said: \u201cWe realised that treating customers fairly during a pandemic of this nature meant giving claimant\u2019s the benefit of the doubt wherever possible and not exposing them to travel or community interaction during the lockdown, unless absolutely necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><strong>3. Always find new ways to do things more efficiently and get things done<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The ability to innovate is any company\u2019s biggest asset \u2013 especially if it is the foundation for the company\u2019s road map and principles.<\/p>\n<p>Through innovation, a business can continue to introduce new and exciting products to the market by taking advantage of opportunities that may come their way and being both agile and proactive in its approach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThrough the successful employment of technology to help create a single platform from where we manage all our clients and products, we were able to bring together all the different pockets of innovation as well as areas of excellence in our business and work as one united team. This enabled us to have greater visibility into what customers want while providing metrics on the efficiency of our employees,\u201d said Grant Field, CEO of Fedgroup.<\/p>\n<p>According to Muhammed Jogee, Operations Manager for Group Products at Fedgroup, the company constantly enhances their systems, and refines their processes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This not only helps bring down the workload, but it also means that service turn-around times are decreased from seven working days to two or three working days,\u201d Jogee said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fedgroup.co.za\/?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_campaign=Fedgroup&amp;utm_term=December_2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Click here to learn more about Fedgroup&#8217;s wide range of financial solutions.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While a one-in-a-hundred-year event like the COVID-19 pandemic is as new to Fedgroup as it is to the rest of the world, the business\u2019 history holds some valuable lessons for companies both large and small.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":457456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10459],"tags":[13307],"class_list":["post-457452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","tag-fedgroup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457452"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458230,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457452\/revisions\/458230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}