The Life Builder

TEXT BY ANTONETTE C. REYES

If Peter Coyiuto were elected president of the Philippines, his first executive order would probably be to mandate that four-year-old kids all over the country be taught football. “And then I would ban basketball,” he adds, shaking his head while watching his son tirelessly attacking the hoop.

Not that he hates basketball. He was, after all, an acknowledged basketball star during his high school years at La Salle Greenhills, and continues to be an avid basketball fan to this day. Nor does he worship Goh Chok Tong, Singaporean president, who, at the height of the World Cup frenzy, said he would order all Singaporeans to learn soccer. He just can’t get over the talent and the efforts wasted at grooming Filipino basketball stars, he says, when diminutive players do not have much of a chance to excel in a sport where height is might. On the other hand, he points out that Filipinos are fast and agile — qualities that would make them good soccer players. “Remember that Pelé started out by kicking coconuts,” he states. “Now he is a hero.”

It is this quest for heroes — and acts of heroism — that motivates Peter Coyiuto in his day-to-day activities as president of First Guarantee Life Inc., one of the top-ranking Filipino insurance companies in the country today; the network partner of Swiss Life and Pension Co., the world's largest employee benefits network; and the group insurance partner of The Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Japan, the second largest in the world. And though he admits the sports arena is the place where heroes are made and abound, he is constantly in search for them in real life.

“You must be a hero in the past to be a hero in this business,” he says. For First Life, these heroes are its people, each chosen and trained painstakingly by the company. Their acts of heroism range from as simple as doing well academically to nobler tasks like sending their siblings to school and supporting the extended family. And Mr. Coyiuto is definite he can be of help to these people. “I believe that the mission or principal role of First Life’s management is to respond to and fulfill the desire of human beings to improve the quality of their lives.”

GROWING PEOPLE, NOT COMPANY

It is on their backs that First Life’s growth and success rests. Mr. Coyiuto says he advocates “recruiting at a slower pace and hiring fewer but better quality candidates. We grow values-driven people by creating an environment in which they can realize their full potential in life and the life insurance business. I believe First Life owes its success in wedding agents to the concept of life insurance to the fact that we do not recruit from other life insurance companies. My whole philosophy about my company is not to grow a large company but to grow agents, and if we can grow and keep enough good agents, then in time we will, by definition, have a large and good company.”

Just what it is that these heroes possess? In a speech before the Life Underwriters Association of the Philippines last year, Mr. Coyiuto spoke of six characteristics of good agents. He sums these up as: attitude, “which translates into the simple words: never say die”; persistency, or “the effort to keep the policy in force for the benefit of policy holders’ beneficiaries”; the ability to build and maintain relationships; a commitment to the pursuit of excellence, seen in “the effort to deliver the best service possible to policy holders”; education or “the development and refinement of the mind through reading and studying”; and industry involvement, manifested in “the desire to forge stronger ties with fellow agents in an attempt to convince the public in general to believe in life insurance as the inside people do.” He emphasizes that all six should “be firmly rooted in integrity.”

Integrity, of course, is an elusive word in a world where piracy is the norm. In the Philippine scenario, it is not unusual for an unprincipled agent to sell a policy to a client this year and encourage him to encash it years later when the agent has moved on to another insurance firm and is selling the same client another policy. Understandably, no client encashes his existing policy unless the agent has done a good demolition job on the track record and performance of the insurance firm he used to work with. Moreover, this cycle will never end as long as there are, sad to say, companies which condone these acts.

It is not surprising then that, despite the seeming proliferation of insurance companies and its liberalization, insurance penetration remains at a low 15% of the population, the lowest among countries in Asia. This number includes those covered by group insurance, which are renewed yearly and thus do not constitute long-term savings.

It would be incorrect, of course, to attribute such dismal figures solely to the lack of creativity among life insurance agents. Low disposable incomes remain the single biggest factor why many Filipinos have not taken out an insurance policy.

Still, Mr. Coyiuto believes there is much a good agent can do, especially if that agent is backed by a company that understands the client and the market. He takes heart in the example set by two of the most distinguished agency managers from America’s most admired life company. Mr. Al Granum, author of Client Building (One Card System)who works with an insurance firm known for its ability to retain agents. In more ways than one, Al Granum has illustrated that it is possible to retain good agents by remaining highly ethical and professional. Mr. Coyiuto also shares Bill Goodwin’s sentiments that “hard work, dedication and commitment to excellence are a few of the characteristics (of good agents), but it goes deeper than that; our agency is about integrity. Integrity is the moral sense we were given to distinguish right from wrong and constructive from destructive. It is a sense that grows stronger as we choose morally, a sense that grows weaker when we choose immorally. If this sense is lost, we become blind to the difference.”

RITUALS OF WORK

Naturally, Mr. Coyiuto exerts effort to make these values filter down the ranks and in the systems and processes employed by the company. A typical week unfolds with the Monday Client Builder, First Life’s peer support and accountability group, which Mr. Coyiuto considers a critical part of the week. “The client builder is our way of critiquing one another’s sales activity and results for the purpose of developing a sense of self-management. Each one of us has talents that can be multiplied when mutually shared. Like a rhythm to life, I endorse the same rhythm to work.”

True to his words, he carries these values on to the Philippine Life Insurance Council, where he sits as board member and chairs the education committee. Reflecting his beliefs, PLIA is coming out with reinforced guidelines on the professionalization of the sales force and the prohibition against replacement of policies, recruitment and transfer of key employees as well as top sales producers.

TOUGH TIMES NURTURE GROWTH

Though such moves may, to some quarters, smack of protectionism, there is no reason to think of these as a threatened industry’s moves to safeguard their turf following to the liberalization of the insurance industry. As with all financial sectors across the region, the Philippine insurance industry is under siege. Competition is greater with the influx of higher-capitalized global players against the backdrop of shrinking markets, a natural offshoot of the Asian economic crisis.

Mr. Coyiuto maintains, however, that First Life is unfazed. He admits, of course, that the company was affected by the crisis, notwithstanding the 20% growth it posted in 1997. “For one, we were victims of companies trying to do short-cut by pirating some of our agents. I believe this is very unhealthy for the industry in the long run. Like other companies, First Life’s stock market investments also suffered,” he elaborates. “We cannot escape the fundamentals. The lesson learnt from the crisis is that wealth creation can only be sustained by value creation.”

WHY LIFE INSURANCE ?

Value creation poses its own challenges. But for the life insurance industry, the challenge is more pronounced. “There is no such thing as strategic philanthropy in life insurance. Some products may identify themselves with a worthy cause to project a wholesome shot, but life insurance does not have to make such an image because the product itself is of social value,” he stresses.

Only life insurance answers the three uncertainties of life: living too short, living too long, and being disabled. When misfortune befalls a person, the banker may come to take everything away, unless the insurance man comes around to pay for the fallen one’s every need. “In the financial industry, this is the only instrument that takes just a little during good times and gives everything back to you a thousandfold during bad times. We are in a business where we are expected to be there for the family of those policyholders in the event that our insured steps out of the picture.”

But insurance is not just about personal tragedies. It is also about the future and its many promises. As Mr. Coyiuto would point out, “the life insurance industry’s greatest contribution has been the growth and contentment of people because policyholders who face up to their obligation of paying for something they themselves will not benefit from, enjoy a more constructive and rewarding life, and grow both in character and in force.”

Which is why First Life still sells life insurance for what it is — a protection against the inevitable. Sure, life insurance makes for a good investment, and in fact, that is how most foreign firms would package it, but people have to see it for what it really is. Mr. Coyiuto knows this only too well. Having been in this business has exposed him to life and its nuances — “human relationships, the pitfalls, the joy, the laughter, the sunrise,” — all of which have impressed on him the poignant fact that life is just too short. Even as a young boy, he had known this and recalls how, as a student at Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, he would eagerly wait for his father’s letters which came regularly every two weeks. Such show of affection was not common back then, especially for a man with the stature of the Coyiuto patriarch. His mother displayed the same courage and affection at her deathbed, as she told each and every family member who to take care of and who to look after. Even his father-in-law, Tan-yu, would, to this day, go directly to the cemetery from the airport to pay his respects to his late mother before proceeding anywhere.

ULTIMATE PASSION: THE FAMILY

It is no surprise then that family remains Peter Coyiuto’s top priority. “No amount of financial success can ever compensate for your failure at home,” he stresses. Married to the former Elena Tan-yu, with four growing kids, Mr. Coyiuto takes to his role as family man with as much zest and vigor. In fact, he runs XanFirst Realty Corp., the real estate arm of First Life, with his wife. Husband and wife have developed the Xanland Place, a commercial, office and residential condominium along Katipunan Ave., Quezon City. The duo is unfazed by the weak real estate market. “We are definitely pushing through with the project, despite the humdrum in the market. I believe people will go for quality and good location, two attributes which aptly describe Xanland.”

The Coyiutos’ business savvy is backstopped by a strong commitment to serve. First Life’s special outreach vehicle, Bless the Children (BTC), is for the benefit of the neglected youth at the Nayon ng Kabataan (National Center for Youth). Initially launched in 1995, the campaign made a three-month run late last year to solicit funds for the center. “I feel we have a unique opportunity to give something back to the community through BTC,” Mr. Coyiuto explained.

Understanding the special needs and joys of children, he expectedly participates in the activities of his daughters. Fourteen-year-old daughter Stephanie’s youthful columns for the Philippine Star are framed and displayed prominently in the Coyiuto household, while paintings by eight-year-old Sofia and a First Life ad featuring four-year-old Samantha enjoy equal stature.

Naturally, he burns the hardcourt with 12-year-old Alexander, who plays for Xavier School. When the team lost a championship game, he told them it was alright to cry. “After all, basketball is more than a game, but a process of creating, growing and learning, which is exactly what life is all about.” And life, he points out, “does not end in certain accomplishments, but is a constant search for added value, added meaning, and added contribution.”

Whichever way the ball of life bounces, Peter Coyiuto will be there to give it more value.

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