Source: Hollardite Keith Bester was in the Out of the Cube team that one the second task in the 2017 The Insurance Apprentice competition. (Image: YouTube)
He and fellow Hollardite Lisa Foster are still in the running in the reality TV-style competition that pits young insurance professionals against each other in a tournament of tasks that seek to uncover their strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, their Hollard colleague Palesa Bolofo was the first contestant to be sent home from the competition produced by the industry magazine, FA News.
Bester, Foster and Bolofo were three of the eight competition finalists. The eight were split into two groups and given the task of coming up with a game-changer for competition sponsor Discovery Insure, in the area of motor vehicle insurance.
Bolofo is an internal broker consultant in the Property and Energy CoE in Johannesburg, Foster is a business development management official in Durban, and Bester is head of the Construction & Engineering CoE in the Durban construction engineering division.
Bester was the only Hollard employee on the winning Out of the Cube team, which suggested Discovery Insure enhance its telematics-based mobile app to speed up the claims notification and settlement time for vehicle insurers.
At the start of the challenge, Bester relinquished his leadership of Out of the Cube to fellow contestant Kurt Stanley, a senior portfolio manager at Associated Insurance Brokers. “It was tactical, from a sense of winning the task,” he says. “I just genuinely believe Kurt showed the best passion in this regard, and I felt like I was holding him back.”
Bester’s tactics paid off, as did Foster’s ability to let go of personal aspirations for the good of her team. “I think it was a good collaboration between all of us,” she says of her team’s idea of an app that could alert drivers of their own fatigue. “There were some things that I wanted to include that I think should have been included. I think a bit further out of the box than some of my teammates.”
The overall winner – who will be announced toward the end of March – gets a bursary from Inseta and will be going to Lloyd’s of London in the UK for a week, to get the low-down on how it does business, and on the company’s systems. They will also get to do some sightseeing.
Support our Hollardites by watching the third episode of The Insurance Apprentice 2017 on YouTube, and following the contest via Twitter (@TheInsApp) or Facebook.
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