30-year-old takes on 50-year-old firm

JAEGER Tanco

Jaeger Tanco, who is in his early 30s, takes on the challenge of managing a 50-year-old insurance company that his family recently acquired in the latter part of 2012.

He now sits as chief executive officer of PhilLife Financial.

The Tanco Group added PhilLife Financial to complete the family’s business portfolio, which includes Philippines First Insurance Co. Inc. (PhilFirst), a non-life insurance company; PhilPlans, a financial solutions company providing pension, education, and memorial programs; and PhilCare, an HMO (health maintenance organization) provider.

Other companies affiliated with PhilLife are schools STI, iAcademy, Philippine Women’s University, West Negros University, a major university in Bacolod, and communications and marketing firm Comm&Sense Inc.

Tanco is an Entrepreneurship Mentor at the University of Asia and the Pacific where he also obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Entrepreneurial Management. He holds a Master in Business Administration from the Ateneo Graduate School of Business.

“The company (PhilLife) has been running for 50 years,” Tanco says. “Basically, everything has its own work flow already and (maybe) it just needs a few changes and innovations.”

Tanco says he doesn’t really need to rock the boat but just tweak a few things to align it to the Tanco Group’s other companies.

He is also currently the chair of PhilCare, president and CEO of Comm&Sense, and business development manager of STI.

PhilLife has a client base of over 55,000 from the corporate and government sectors with 26 offices all over the country. As of December 2012, the firm reported an audited asset base of P1.5 billion and a net worth of P489 million.

Tanco reveals he is looking at breaking into the Top 15 ranking from its current 22nd position in the next few years. PhilLife intends to tap a different market, which he declines to divulge, to achieve significant growth.

“We don’t expect to compete with (other multinational insurance companies),” he says. “We are not going head on with them.”

Innovations

Tanco is not new in handling newly acquired companies. PhilLife is his second after taking over PhilCare in 2010. Prior to that, he had his training at STI right after graduation in 2003.

Tanco started the innovations part for PhilLife by introducing new products, in addition to the existing ones, that are relevant to the needs of consumers. These are Wealth Protect Plus and Dengue RX.

Wealth Protect Plus is designed to provide the people with “high-guaranteed annual earnings” which can be passed on to loved ones. Interested individuals can “place the amount they wish to invest as a single-pay insurance premium for as low as P100,000.” From this, they will receive 5 percent of the face amount every year starting at the end of the second policy year. At the end of the 10th year, they will receive 105 percent of their face amount giving them a total of 145 percent of the single premium payment.

Dengue RX, on the other hand, “is a medical reimbursement plan created to provide Filipinos with financial support in battling dengue. For a one-time premium (one year) of P120 for adults or P520 for children, those with the plan can avail themselves of medical reimbursement of up to P30,000 if they were diagnosed with and treated for dengue. On top of these, Dengue RX provides up to P10,000 in accidental death and disability benefits,” Tanco explains.

Challenges
Tanco says, “It was quite an easy transition” for him because he’s been through it and knew what to expect or look for. But he sees “culture” as one of the challenges he needs to address.

“Different companies are handled differently,” he explains. “The first phase is to set clear directions. If your leadership is different, your goals are different. Some are in for profitability while some are there for market share. The first thing that we need to do is set directions so we are all aiming for the same goal. That’s how you can align companies.”

Tanco may be young but he has been training practically his whole life. He relates how his father prepared him to run the family’s businesses eventually.

“My father trains me in a very interesting way,” he recalls. “He didn’t tell me outright that I would be running some of the Tanco Group’s companies. But he would tag me along in his meetings (without even giving me a lecture). That’s how I learned.”

When he was thrust into the business finally after graduation, he started at STI handling marketing and channel management.

“I would go to schools, including franchise schools, and learn on the ground the operations and other things,” he says. “It was a whole new world for me. Even if you want to say that you know everything, at the end of the day, you can learn from more experienced people. My mentor then, Elbert Cruz, head of communications of STI, was patient in helping me understand everything that I needed to know.”

Tanco takes the fact that he is his father’s son in a more positive way. “I cannot change that and maybe in some ways I don’t want to change that also,” he says.

Information campaign

Tanco sees an opportunity in the insurance company because more people are aware of the benefits of having an insurance.

“It is a growing industry and Filipinos have a lot of disposable income to invest in life insurance,” he says. PhilLife just needs to be out there more to keep people aware of other options aside from other companies.

“Our mission is always to serve the Filipino people,” he says. “And we will continue doing that to make insurance accessible to more Filipinos. We will also be introducing new products tailor-fit for the needs of the market we are looking into.”