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another insurance company is recruiting talents through "open auditions", and this time the protagonist is zheshang property & casualty insurance co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "zheshang insurance"). on september 9, a beijing business daily reporter noticed that recently, zheshang insurance posted a recruitment notice for the general manager of zheshang insurance on its shareholder's official website, announcing the public recruitment of a general manager of zheshang insurance.

the current general manager of zheshang insurance is jiang zhaohui, who is still in office. the position of general manager is not vacant. what are the considerations for recruiting the general manager through a nationwide "open audition"? what requirements does zheshang insurance have put forward for the future general manager?

open recruitment for general manager

on september 9, a beijing business daily reporter noticed that zhejiang communications investment group co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "zhejiang communications group"), a shareholder of zheshang insurance, recently posted a recruitment announcement for the general manager of zheshang insurance: due to business development needs, it is now publicly recruiting a general manager of zheshang insurance from outside the group, and the work location will be hangzhou, zhejiang.

at present, the position of general manager of zhejiang merchants insurance is not vacant. the current general manager of the company is jiang zhaohui, who is still in office. according to his resume, jiang zhaohui has worked in the taizhou branch of the people's bank of china, the zhejiang regulatory bureau of the former china banking regulatory commission, etc. he has also served as the deputy leader of the risk control of the zhejiang transportation group financial holding platform preparatory group and the deputy general manager of zhejiang zhejiang merchants financial holding co., ltd. during his tenure at zhejiang merchants insurance, jiang zhaohui also held multiple positions, not only as general manager, but also as party secretary, director, and chief investment officer.

beijing business daily reporter learned that zhejiang merchants insurance had previously experienced a six-year vacancy in the position of general manager, which ended after jiang zhaohui took office in early 2023. at the same time, after jiang zhaohui took office, zhejiang merchants insurance also ended its continuous losses and achieved profitability in 2023 and the first half of this year. however, in this recruitment, the term "outside the group" excluded jiang zhaohui and other current management of zhejiang merchants insurance from the screening list.

why did they publicly recruit a general manager again only one and a half years after the general manager took office? a beijing business daily reporter sent a letter to zheshang insurance to ask about the relevant issues, but no reply was received as of the time of sending the letter.

as for the reason why zhejiang merchants insurance publicly recruited talents, senior actuary xu yuchen analyzed that, judging from his resume, although jiang zhaohui has worked in the financial system for a long time, he has relatively less experience in the insurance industry. the insurance industry is special and professional, so zhejiang merchants insurance may be inclined to recruit an executive with more insurance industry experience.

recruitment requirements and work difficulty are not low

what requirements need to be met in order to become the “second in command” of zhejiang merchants insurance?

judging from the requirements of the recruitment positions, applicants must not only have more than eight years of financial work experience or more than ten years of economic work experience (of which the financial work experience must not be less than five years), but also have experience in the insurance industry, such as serving as a senior manager at the position of general manager or above of a provincial branch of an insurance company for more than five years, serving as the head of an insurance company department for more than five years, or serving in an equivalent management position in a financial regulatory agency for more than five years.

in terms of professional capabilities, applicants also need to be familiar with the operation and management of modern insurance companies, be proficient in insurance industry regulatory policies and insurance-related laws and regulations; and have professional capabilities in coordinating the realization of property insurance companies' strategic goals, risk prevention and mitigation, and digital transformation.

insurance companies have previously held precedents of open "selection" of general managers, such as beibu gulf property & casualty insurance and china post insurance. industry insiders told reporters that most general managers of insurance companies are appointed or recommended by shareholders, and open recruitment is seen as a more market-oriented move. wang peng, an associate researcher at the beijing academy of social sciences, said that market-oriented recruitment of general managers can promote the reform and innovation of the company's internal management mechanism, breaking the traditional employment concept and promotion path. in addition, the arrival of a new general manager is often accompanied by a series of reform measures and management adjustments, bringing new development ideas and management models.

however, in the current situation where the industry competition is so fierce, the job of general manager of an insurance company is not easy. wang peng pointed out that shareholders often have high expectations for the company's performance and development. the general manager of an insurance company needs to reasonably manage these expectations to ensure that the company develops steadily while meeting the reasonable demands of shareholders. for example, in terms of performance, the general manager of an insurance company bears huge performance pressure and needs to ensure that the company's key indicators such as premium income and net profit reach the predetermined targets.

facing challenges such as losses in auto insurance business

founded in 2009, zhejiang commercial insurance is headquartered in hangzhou with a registered capital of 5 billion yuan. it is the first national, comprehensive property insurance company headquartered in zhejiang. looking back on its previous development history, zhejiang commercial insurance once suffered a heavy historical burden due to the "qiaoxing bond" and experienced years of downturn.

for the future general manager of zhejiang merchants insurance, although zhejiang merchants insurance has achieved profitability and gradually got rid of historical burdens, its adjustment and transformation may still be in progress. beijing business daily reporters found that in recent years, auto insurance has been the largest insurance product of zhejiang merchants insurance, but it has been losing money year after year. taking 2021-2023 as an example, the scale of zhejiang merchants insurance's auto insurance business is relatively stable, maintaining at around 1.9 billion yuan. although the premium contribution is significant, it has never been profitable and continues to be in an underwriting loss state. in the past three years, the underwriting losses of its auto insurance business were 282 million yuan, 141 million yuan, and 111 million yuan, respectively. although the underwriting losses have narrowed, the annual loss scale has exceeded 100 million yuan.

"the quality of auto insurance business is relatively high for family cars, but it is more difficult for small and medium-sized insurance companies to obtain private car insurance business; small and medium-sized insurance companies need to be given more incentive policies for auto insurance sales, so the policy control costs or sales expenses are higher." xu yuchen said that the auto insurance market also has a certain scale effect, and small and medium-sized insurance companies are relatively easier to incur underwriting losses.

generally speaking, the future development trend of a company can also be seen through its recruitment needs. the reporter noticed that in the recruitment needs of zhejiang merchants insurance for general managers, clear requirements were put forward for the digital transformation professional capabilities of applicants. zhejiang merchants insurance itself is also accelerating the creation of a digital platform and promoting digital empowerment. wang peng said that digital transformation provides insurance companies with new ideas and new tools for product innovation, and also helps insurance companies optimize internal management processes and improve operational efficiency.

in the view of industry insiders, although small and medium-sized insurance companies do not have more first-mover advantages in digital transformation, they may still seize the opportunity to overtake others.

beijing business daily reporter li xiumei