Building a data-led cycle management strategy is crucial: Aon

Reinsurers must combine data-driven clarity with speed to avoid being squeezed out in a softening market, says Aon’s Steve Dando.

Key points:
Data drives renewal advantage gap
Speed separates market leaders
Avoid the squeezed middle

Reinsurers are under pressure to continue to drive profitable growth though the market cycle. The answer, according to Steve Dando, UK and EMEA CEO of Aon’s Strategy and Technology Group, lies in adopting data-driven approaches to cycle management, powered by best-in-class execution capability.

With softening market conditions creeping further into both insurance and reinsurance lines, those who thrive this season will possess the speed and clarity to act, which for brokers, means helping carriers make sharper, data-driven decisions before portfolios begin to erode.

The differentiator is not just data access, but how it translates into execution. “We feel we are uniquely positioned because we have such a broad and robust data-set,” Dando told Baden-Baden Today, adding that this insight was greatly amplified by STG’s internal collaboration with “the best brokers in the world and the best capital advisory minds”.

Dando explained that STG’s work on “cycle management, and ultimately profitable growth” on behalf of clients has intensified this year. “There’s probably a greater degree of urgency to deploy those optimising strategies because of the softening market environment,” he noted. While last year was about preparing frameworks, he suggested this renewal phase would be about acting with precision and speed to avoid slipping behind.

Aon’s market cycle solutions combine scenario planning, portfolio analytics, and deep-dive market assessments. With diagnostic tools and real-time feedback loops, insurers can identify growth opportunities, remediate underperforming segments, and validate strategic choices, with the aim of driving continuous improvement in capital efficiency and profitability.

He is frank about the risks facing carriers that fail to anticipate pressure points: “Uncontrolled performance deterioration leading to adverse stakeholder reactions” and “profit leakage, loss of desirable business” are recurring warning signs that Dando wants the industry to heed. Once a reinsurer begins reacting rather than steering, he warned, the gap between leaders and the rest opens quickly.

Clarity around risk appetite and disciplined execution sits at the heart of STG’s guidance, with the team helping clients to develop “highly informed growth plans” and “differentiating underwriting decisions using more data points”. Adopting this approach can require a cultural shift from insurers and reinsurers, and involves “more proactive conversations with clients and brokers, and a reinsurance programme that optimises from a performance perspective”.

Dando pointed to what his group defines as the seven traits of best-in-class insurers: defined risk appetite, operational agility, data and analytics strength, underwriting innovation, talent alignment, distribution clarity and capital flexibility.

“We believe evidence-based decision-making is critical to success,” he said, highlighting that carriers that hardwire these traits into their operating models are better placed to capture opportunity as capacity flows back into the market.

“STG sits in a data-rich environment where we have deep, holistic insights that can help support profitable growth throughout the market cycle”.

Distribution dynamics are changing rapidly for insurers, too. Dando noted that brokers were clearly “serious about portfolio solution strategies”, citing broker facilities and pre-placed capacity solutions as default tools across multiple classes. Those unwilling or unable to define their role face a narrowing field. “There becomes a squeezed middle, where there is less risk to pursue,” he said.

For insurers, this moment forces a binary decision: lead with authority at the top of programmes, or follow efficiently through digital and structured capacity channels. “As a leader in this space, STG is well-positioned to support insurers in continuing to find efficient ways of deploying capital that are aligned with how brokers are going to place that capacity,” Dando said. Agility and appetite clarity, he argued, become performance drivers rather than  buzzwords.

Aside from its unique positioning within Aon, STG’s integration of consulting and technology under one leadership structure stands it apart from traditional advisory firms, notes Dando. “It all sits under a single remit, and that’s deliberate,” he emphasised. Everything begins with strategic, consulting-led dialogue, not a product pitch. “The process doesn’t start with a technology sale; it all starts with a conversation with the client – understanding their needs, challenges, or any existing processes that may not be working as well as they could.. We’re here to bring clarity and confidence, and to drive better business decisions.”

Technology could then follow as an enabler, rather than as a static product solution. With capital modelling tools, pricing platforms and analytics capabilities backed by the broking engine and consulting capabilities, STG can move beyond theory and into execution.

As Dando put it, the Group brings “the sharp end of the execution focus” that pure stand-alone consulting lacks. That, he concluded, is why reinsurers are leaning-in as renewal intensity builds. “STG sits in a data-rich environment where we have deep, holistic insights that can help support a more effective navigation throughout the market cycle.”

In a renewal season where speed and clarity are prized, that combination may be a powerful advantage.

Steve Dando is UK & EMEA chief executive officer of Aon’s Strategy and Technology Group. He can be contacted at: stephen.dando@aon.com.

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