How is ICICI Pru different in terms of the qualitative aspect of its investment strategy?
It s a question of where we invest our energy as an organisation. Did we invest our energies only in marketing or only in distribution, or holistically across the organisation? Many insurance companies might have decided to invest in the front-end first, ignoring the back-end of the business. We have not done that. In order to get both the front and back end in place, we initiated Six Sigma. We hired two fund managers with excellent track records when we had a policyholder fund of under Rs 1 crore. We did not favour taking advice from somebody else to manage out portfolio. As the fund size grows, we will hire additional fund managers. As far as fund management is concerned, you must have the right philosophy, the right policy and the right control systems. We have fairly well defined limits and policies on how they can invest. These limits are apart from what IRDA has prescribed. In terms of transparency, people are not worried about money put in LIC because it is a government company.
