Dennis Gamsy reflects on 40 years of success

The GIB Group was established 40 years ago by former Springbok cricketer, Dennis Gamsy. The same level of competitiveness, ambition and drive that characterized Gamsy’s performance on the cricket pitch has seen his leadership propel GIB into the leading independent insurance broking group in the country.

Looking back on the insurance sector over the last four decades, Gamsy says one of the most notable changes is how the values at risk have grown exponentially over the years through economic growth, digitisation and urbanisation which all contribute to an increase in risk and a reconfiguration of risk patterns that is reshaping the industry. These pose new challenges to the insurance industry which cannot be ignored. Gamsy says, “Risks are more substantial in every way possible. In my experience it was very rare that you could not find an underwriter to take on a risk. Now it is not so rare.” He says many companies find themselves uninsurable nowadays unless they are willing to comply with risk improvement requirements, which often means spending substantial amounts of hard-earned company funds and may also result in higher premiums to find a risk acceptable to underwriters.

Gamsy uses plastics factories as an example to illustrate his point. He says they often have huge compliance requirements from a risk point of view and there are several companies that are simply uninsurable because they are not prepared or cannot afford to invest in risk improvement demands such as the investment in a sprinkler system. He suggests that going forward, and to remain relevant, that the insurance company market, because of substantial incremental sums insured, will need to increase their capital bases so that they are in a position of being able to accept these larger risks. Indeed, this is becoming more of a demand on insurance companies, leading to a shrinkage of the marketplace resulting in more M&A activity as well as more potential insolvencies. One of the continuing challenges to insurance brokers is to place business on behalf of their clients with insurers with acceptable solvency ratios.

Of great relevance is that more frequent catastrophes which occur in any part of the world will affect insurance rates worldwide, and not only in the countries where such catastrophes may have occurred. Climate change, related fires and floods, could happen anywhere in the world, but the impact on insurance rates is global. He says, “The world of reinsurance comes into play when catastrophes occur. The reinsurers then demand higher rates from their clients which are the insurance companies that the public knows of and reads about, and it is these incremental rates that push the market to increase costs and risk protection demands to and of the public that insurance brokers interface with.”

He says there may conceivably have to be SASRIA (South African Special Risk Insurance Association) type interventions adopted in different countries where the sovereign takes the risk in the event of funds available via a SASRIA type insurer Carrier becoming exhausted following upon a catastrophe. This may also be an approach adopted in countries where the insurance market will not accept certain types of risks. SASRIA was created following the 1976 Soweto riots which saw foreign investments into RSA drying up. Investors would not risk a large investment if they could not buy cover through normal insurance channels, so SASRIA was established since standard insurance did not cover politically caused damage to assets.

The agility and adaptability honed in international sports has been applied to Gamsy’s career. He adopted an ageless formula focusing on a combination of new business and client service which shaped and directed growth at GIB, and it continues to this day.

He says an emphatic approach to acquiring new business, the lifeblood of any service organisation, and his unwavering determination to identify and convert meaningful new business leads, is proof that this works. He says he doesn’t take “no” as a final answer: “No is not a forever gesture and perhaps you have intrigued the potential client sufficiently to sit on the bench for a while, but then go back and try and try again. An entrepreneur cannot afford to be thin-skinned.” And that’s exactly what Gamsy has done. He aims high, often way out of his league at a particular given time but has done so with such tenacity and confidence that he got it right and landed large clients. Nowadays GIB, under the new leadership of Jurie Erwee, previously CEO of Marsh Africa, is regularly invited to pitch for business held by the largest international brokers operating in the local market.

For any insurance broker to succeed, excellent service must be at the forefront of the business. “This one word, SERVICE, represents the lifeblood of GIB,” says Gamsy and he adds that he believes in the idiom “ruthless service”. The insurance sector has grown to an extent where clients become numbers, which anathema to Gamsy. “You must be a chameleon - able to provide service on a local level to individual clients as if you are a family run company. At the same time, you must be able to act globally in the sense that you can place risks seriously as a capable and substantial broker for blue-chip companies.” GIB has clearly achieved this.

So, despite the substantial, ever-growing risk and external factors such as natural disasters, there are timeless business practices that result in success. For Gamsy and his vision of GIB 40 years ago, it was to become a challenge in the insurance industry. As the largest, independent, broking group in South Africa and a Level 1 B-BBEE rated company, GIB has certainly succeeded.