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Searles, of Portsmouth-based Wunelli, followed with the inspirational story of how her company grew in stature and reputation until it was acquired earlier this year by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, part of Reed Elsevier. Its field is a growing one, telematics technology that is changing the face of motor insurance underwriting.
One of the company’s founders is Australian, hence Wunelli, which is Aborigine for ’big dreams’. It has certainly seen that come to fruition. With a background in insurance, the company was launched in 2007, into an industry that Searles said was ’pretty much recession- proof’.
Searles said that most people tended to have household and motor insurance with the same provider, but telematics offered something new: “Telematics is the capture of driving behaviour data from a car. The challenge was to make people understand the value of what we sell. Putting a box in a car costs money and we had to prove the concept.
“We set up as our own insurance broker and got six insurance companies to join. Then we had a showcase, and we learned a lot. The problems were operational, not technology-based issues. We are the only company in the country that knows how to make this work. So what did we do? We shared that information.
“We work with 95% of UK insurers that use driving behavioural data and if we say we will deliver, we do. It’s not common in insurance, it’s a trust thing.“
Wunelli has done all this without a marketing team; it has used PR and word of mouth because customers want a relationship that is reliable, trustworthy and delivers every time. There are 26 million domestic cars in the UK and 500,000 have data collection. The company had to find a
Back row (from left): Charles Garfit and David Murray. Front: Sponsors Alex Fuller from Santander Corporate & Commercial; Jeremy Over of Moore Blatch and Adrian Rann of James Cowper; with Penny Searles
way to get the cost of data down and show its value to insurers, therefore it worked with motor manufacturers.
“The proof-of-concept ethos has worked well for us. We started with two people and invested our own money, so we controlled the cost.“
Wunelli is also unusual in not having an HR department: “We don’t think we need them; we have less than 1% attrition, no sickness and don’t have to justify stuff to HR. When you do not have job titles people cannot say ’that’s not my job’. Our people have embraced the fact we have no red tape; it’s different, we talk to each other and that’s why my team is so strong. We trust each other.“
With 40 staff in three countries, Wunelli will outsource when it needs to. Searles said
every decision had been made based on ’selling it tomorrow’: “It was not started for altruistic reasons, but it’s nice to have sold it for a good profit. There was no requirement to stay on but I will as long as we can carry on doing what we do.“
If she had advice to help other growing SMEs, it would be to encompass flexibility: “Be flexible with strategy plans. Business never stands still. Have a core objective, but work with the market and embrace it.“
Following a question and answer session and networking, Murray concluded by thanking the speakers, the sponsors and congratulating all the companies on the list, which will be updated annually. It will evolve as new companies come to light and as some businesses may merge, change or occasionally cease trading.
Look out for SME 100 profiles in future editions of The Business Magazine as well as events which will give businesses the opportunity to share their success stories and engage with like-minded companies.
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THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – NOVEMBER 2014
www.businessmag.co.uk
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