Not Talking Insurance with Cover Publications

Working in the insurance industry, you meet many different, interesting and energetic people. You build relationships and often get to know people outside of the traditional work space.

Our friend, insurance expert and media guru from COVER publications, Tony Van Niekerk, recently launched a podcast titled “Insurance people not talking insurance”.

In the course of his day-to-day work Tony speaks to people from all over the world on all things insurance-related and on financial services, in general. He also gets to know many of the people he interacts with on a more personal level.

“I find these interactions fascinating,” he says. “My work gives me access to people across the insurance industry, which is filled with people who are passionate about many things ‘outside of the office’. These include charities, mentorships, fascinating hobbies, sports and a whole lot of other things that impact society in one way or another.”

True to his inquisitive, journalistic nature, Tony decided to explore the topic further and came up with an idea to share these individuals’ stories with a broader audience. And so Insurance People Not Talking Insurance  was born.

“The aim of the podcast is to share the inspirational thoughts and accomplishments of insurance professionals and inspire others – both within and outside our industry – to start making a difference themselves.”

In the first podcast of the series, Tony interviewed Carel, our chief señor. In the interview they discuss their views on transformation in insurance – and, in general, in our country.

Carel links transformation to diversity and how we need to “maximise and optimise” these talents in different contexts.

“In South Africa we tend to limit our thinking around transformation to gender and race,” he says, “but it is actually far broader than this. We should look for the opportunity in diversity to embrace difference in all its forms and learn from those around us.”

Carel talks about importance of embracing diversity and difference… doing things differently.

“We should not be afraid to expose ourselves to people who are different and come from different backgrounds,” he says. “See this as an opportunity rather than an inconvenience or discomfort.”

At CN&CO we believe that 2 + 2 must = (at least) 22. Yes, we can count and we do own a calculator, but in this statement we aren’t talking about or trying to do maths. We are talking about the way we approach what we do. We challenge ourselves to embrace difference and its complexity in everything that we do in order to multiply the end result exponentially.

So try it! Embrace difference and learn from those around you. If you’re not sure how, subscribe to the Insurance People Not Talking Insurance podcast (via the COVER Publications newsletter) as a great first step!