Best way to ensure survival; Inside View IN ASSOCIATION WITH BARCLAYS.

Byline: Amanda Jarrett

The next 12 months are going to bring a number of challenges to all of us. As murmurings about the unpredictability of insurance rates during the latter half of 2009 get louder and signs of tightening of market attitude increase, we in the insurance industry will be working ever more closely with our clients to prepare for the changing trading and operating environment. however, it's not all doom and gloom. The best of the brokers have learned lessons from the previous hard market and are looking to take practical steps to reduce premium wastage.

For those of you unfortunate enough to remember the horrific "hard" market of 2001, you will recall not only premium rates soaring, but also cover being restricted and often withdrawn completely.

Businesses need to act now to ensure they assess and understand all their potential risks, can demonstrate robust riskmanagement procedures and are willing to be proactive in these areas.

The good news is that despite the difficulties of securing cover and the likelihood of increasing premiums, there are still deals to be done.

My advice is to be better than the rest in the areas listed above and then your business will find itself at the top of insurers' piles, creating competition between insurers as they fight for the business.

I believe it is also the perfect time to look at alternative ways of designing your insurance programme. There are some very innovative ways of combining risk-retention with riskmanagement, which were previously only available to the largest corporations. So now is the time to be speaking to your broker.

We have seen substantial premium savings, even when rates have been at their lowest, just by changing the way a client buys insurance.

We need to change mindsets and stop the pound-swapping exercises that still dominate the traditional purchaser. If you pound-swap with an insurer, they will inevitably want to put their profit on top.

Businesses also need to be receptive about ways of reducing claims in the longer term as this will help drive down your insurance premiums.

Amanda Jarrett is Business Development Director with the Heath Lambert Group in Birmingham.