Page 138 - Be Reasonable – Do It My Way , Peter E. Daly AM, My Story

CHAPTER 13 - NORWICH WINTERTHUR INSURANCE AUSTRALIA LTD
Today, it is very different. I am an ardent supporter of Essendon. It is certainly a game that captures one, given that it is fast and played over a period of four quarters.
In May 1982 I was appointed General Manager of Norwich Winterthur Insurance Australia to follow on from Ern Pynor who was retiring after 47 years.
My first year in Melbourne was literally a baptism of fire. On 16 February 1983 the Ash Wednesday bushfires broke out and caused widespread destruction across Victoria and South Australia. History shows that 47 people died in Victoria and 28 in South Australia. Over 3,700 buildings were destroyed and over 2,500 people lost their homes. I decided that this was not the time to apply normal insurance adjusting and claims techniques. Some of our insured customers had lost their entire property, so we paid their policies out in full..
Figure 1 Free Strickland AM OBE During WWII
Putting the bushfires to one side, my approach to a new country and a new company was, as you may imagine, to do my homework. So, I set about doing a very detailed analysis of the company’s operations, its business, its people, and most importantly its intermediaries.
I was exceedingly pleased when Ern Pynor agreed he would stay on while I started to address the Corporate Plan for 1983 and beyond. This was the first of many corporate plans, all of which we communicated to all the management and staff and made sure we executed
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