Service quality and annual profitability are the two most important factors when reviewing strategic alliances, according to 90 percent of insurance executives surveyed by Inter-Company Marketing Group (ICMG), a non-profit association that fosters strategic alliances among insurance and financial services companies. Sales revenue and profitability for the length of the alliance also ranked high.
Strategic alliance reviews are largely the responsibility of senior management, division level, or line-of-business management, ICMG said; 93 percent of respondents said that senior managers are involved in their reviews of existing strategic alliances.
More than 40 percent of respondents review strategic alliances on an "as needed" basis, or have no set schedule for review, ICMG said, and one-third are involved in an annual review of strategic alliances.
The most-common types of strategic alliances respondents were marketing agreements, cited by 72 percent, followed by product distribution agreements between carrier and distributor, with 70 percent. The survey was conducted in October and November of 2012, and the 104 respondents consisted of insurance manufacturers, distributors, support providers and vendors.
