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3: Post demutualisation

After nearly five years with the Standard Life Board

“I had a taste of the old Standard Life as a mutual. My
view was that mutuality was a great theoretical
concept, but for a big financial services company it was
not right. I felt (demutualisation) was the only way
forward for the company.”
Gerry Grimstone

Grimstone further commented that:

“Demutualisation was like “re-engineering” with 80-90%
of the Board’s time taken up with demutualisation. This
underlined the strength of the Standard Life brand.
Market position was held because of that strength and
the company prospered despite the changes.”

The change from mutual to plc required a shift in behaviour at
Standard Life. Crombie and the Board now had to orchestrate
strategy and tactics to a market rhythm that demanded closer
observation, greater openness and more competitive performance.
They had started this process of moving away from the traditional
insurer to a wider financial services provider model in January
2004. Now it had to be consolidated.

In its first year as a listed company Standard Life performed well
as Crombie pointed out at the 2007 Interim Results announcement
in September 2007:

“We have made significant progress in increasing
margin in our UK business over the first half of 2007,
thanks to strong growth in higher margin products
supported by the continued improvement in underlying
efficiency. We are on track to meet our target of a 9-
10% return on embedded value in 2007 and increasing
thereafter.

“I am pleased to be able to announce the payment of
our first interim dividend to our 1.5 million shareholders
of 3.8p per share on 30 November 2007, representing
a growth rate of 5.6%.”