All you need to know about Surya Jyoti Insurance’s historic merger!
Surya Life insurance and Jyoti Life insurance have successfully completed the merger process and have started their operations under Surya Jyoti label. The pace at which the merger process was completed is nothing short of historic. With the cases of mergers in bureaucratic mess like that of Himalayan Bank and Nepal Investment Bank’s merger process, the pace at which the two insurance companies have finalized their merger process has set an example for businesses in Nepal. In this article, we will look at the reasons behind the successful and swift merger process, in addition to, branding initiative the newly merged Surya Jyoti has embarked on based on our interview with Surya Jyoti’s brand manager Mr. Megendra Prakash Giri.
Merger
Mr. Giri states that ‘ apart from the regulatory requirements to go for merger in order to increase the paid-up capital’, there are multiple reasons why Surya Life Insurance and Jyoti Life Insurance are a perfect match. Established in 2008, Surya Life Insurance has been working in Nepal’s insurance sector for more than 15 years. Similarly, even though Jyoti Life Insurance has 5 years experience, these two insurance companies are two of the top performing insurance companies. To add to this, the brand name of these two companies are complimentary i.e. Surya(Sun) and Jyoti(Light) are complementary to each other. Additionally, Mr. Giri states that ‘ while we were two different companies, we share similar open work culture and business ethics. Ergo, our merger was not just borne out of regulatory necessity, but rather out of a very natural complementary growth process’.
New brand position
One of the worst things with Nepalese mergers is that the companies engage in lazy branding i.e. simply join the name of two brands. Surya Jyoti has done something similar, joining the brand name Surya and Jyoti. However, what BrandGuff finds interesting is that the merger is nothing sort of unfathomable. With mergers like that of Investment bank in merger chaos, the fact that Surya Life Insurance and Jyoti Life Insurance carried out the merger process is unprecedented to say the least. At the same time, while Surya-Jyoti Life insurance has followed the same model, they have justified the name well. According to Giri, ‘ Surya and Jyoti are mutually complimentary since Jyoti(light) sans Surya(Sun) is not possible. It is the Sun that gives Jyoti. Sun is the source of all forms of light. Co-incidentally, thus, our merger with our old names makes total sense.’
With the new name, Surya-Jyoti has also positioned itself with a unique motto i.e. ‘for life‘. Like the different rays of light throughout the day from dawn to dusk, Surya-Joyit’s core mission statement is to provide a ray of light to its customers’ throughout the various processes of life. Like the sunrise, the insurance company aspired to help provide energy and vitality for life for its customer. And like the sunset, even during the last days of their customers’ life, Surya-Jyoti hopes to provide warmth and joy.
Often times, with mergers following a lazy naming merger process, a brand’s position gets lost. We do commend Surya Jyoti Life Insurance’s marketing team for being able to justify the name with their core brand position!
Successfully cracked the Internal Branding
Merger processes are often chaotic with the lack of synergy and a sense of solidarity between the employees who come from two different companies with, oftentimes, different work cultures. Also personal ambitions are often the reason for merger process being stuck in administrative hurdles. Case in point- the epic failure of Nepal Investment Bank and Himalaya Bank’s merger process. When asked on how these two insurance companies avoided this, Mr. Giri asserts that ‘ since both the companies have a very open work culture, the synergy between the two companies’ employees was smooth like butter. Additionally, our top leadership too believe that post-merger, Surya Jyoti will become one of the most successful company. Therefore, since everyone believes in our collective vision, we did not have any ego clashes during and after the merger process with our leadership’. In fact, the merger process has been so smooth, that Surya-Jyoti has already signed more than 1000 policies since they started their collective operation!
Summing up
In an economy mired with professional ego clashes, Surya Jyoti Life Insurance Company’s successful merger and smooth transition internally should be a case study to companies, both within and without the insurance sector, on how to not just carry out the process smoothly with minimal, if any, hassle to its old customers and shareholders, but also on how important it is to justify the newly formed brand name. While Surya Jyoti Life Insurance follows the same old A+B=AB naming formula, the company has at least been creative in forming a coherent and complimentary brand story and brand position. Also, for now, largely, the merger seems to happen only because of the regulatory hook. This could be one of the major reasons why merger processes are stuck in limbo or fail after few months/years. We commend and congratulate the leadership and employees of Surya Jyoti Life insurance for having avoided these missteps and wish the company for further growth!
