ALIGNMENT WITH BUSINESS STRATEGY

The Santam business strategy is centred on three building blocks for sustained competitive advantage:

• Client centricity,
• Effective collaboration with intermediaries, and
• Effective culture and capacity to deliver.

Essential aspects of our strategy implementation include effective client segmentation and leadership in risk management.

The sustainability function gives us a lens through which to view long-term shifts in the socio-economic and environmental landscape and supports business strategy in a number of ways:

• Identifying fundamental long-term drivers of change in the insurance sector,
• Identifying emerging risks and market opportunities that fall outside of the day-to-day operational priorities,
• Making sure that issues such as HIV/Aids, climate change, transformation and emerging market development are properly monitored and reported,
• Extending issues of material importance to our intermediaries by broadening the boundaries of our sustainability management framework, and
• Giving stakeholders a positive perception of our business and protecting our business reputation by proactively developing a business response to societal issues.

During 2009, a co-operative relationship existed between the Business Strategy and Sustainability departments, although these functions remain distinct from each other. Our aim is to ensure greater collaboration between these functions in the year ahead.